The little moments
by BlackArticFox
Summary: One-shot series in which Yuuri gets to hear from people in the castle stories about the former Maou's three sons and the moments they remember the most from their early years
1. Thunderstorms

**Fanfiction title: **The little moments

**Fanfiction summary: **One-shot series in which Yuuri gets to hear from people in the castle stories about the former Maou's three sons and the moments they remember the most from their early years.**  
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**Chapter title: **Thunderstorms

**Featured brothers: **Conrad and Gwendal

**Story teller: **Günter

**Chapter number: **1/11

**Authoress: **BlackArcticFox

**Authoress' note: **I finished this series almost a couple of months ago and I got really into it, I came and looked for fics right away and found some interesting ones, I will be filling my profile with my favorite stories soon but I also thought I could give it a try to write one of my own.

I always found the relationship between the not-look-alike brothers interesting mainly because it was not as showed in the anime series as I would have liked but it is precisely because of that I felt free to think up some very corny moments happening in their early years before Wolfram found out the truth about Conrad being a half-breed (and a couple even after that happening). There will be 10 chapters and the epilogue which yes I believe will be just as corny if you will but I hope I can add some comedy here and there in some of the future chapters.

Now surely my math here is way off considering the scenes in the series but I will stick to this method throughout my story and if I decide to write more fics I will also keep this method. I hope you enjoy reading this series of one-shots I prepared. Oh and sorry for any mistakes this may have, English is not my first language.

I hope to update often if time and stuff allows it. I really want to finish this soon since I have more or less planned what will happen in the rest of the chapters and I just need to type them… sometimes easier said than done.

**…..**

**Chapter 1: **_Thunderstorms_

"_Heika?"_

Yuuri was looking out the window, the garden was empty at the moment except for five people who went by the names of Greta, Wolfram, Conrad, Yozak and Gwendal. Wolfram and Greta were sitting under a tree side by side, the blond was reading a book aloud to the human girl; at the other side of the garden Conrad was leaning against a stone pillar and Yozak was sitting on the railing keeping up a seemingly amusing conversation; Gwendal for his part was sitting at the table Yuuri had used to eat outside so many times since he got to Shin Makoku drinking tea and going through some papers.

"_Heika!"_

It was a very beautiful day, even Gwendal who rarely left his office was outside with his work. However in the picture there was something that seemed off now that Yuuri thought about it: The three brothers were in the same place but they were not with each other as if each was in their own little world. The Maou frowned; he knew the three not-look-alike brothers cared for each other deeply but they simply wouldn't let it show unless one of them was in danger. He couldn't recall a time apart from the three daily meals in which they shared their time without duty being the reason for that. Yuuri himself still shared, albeit sometimes hesitantly, time with his brother to play some board games or watch TV or go out somewhere but these three… They just didn't seem that close to each other, not enough to simply share spare time with each other at least.

"_Yuuri-Heika!"_

Yuuri thought a bit more on it and remembered they apparently were closer before Wolfram found out the truth about Conrad's race, when the blond prince wasn't as bratty. Nowadays, with their military training and their nobility surroundings they looked a little too cold to show care for one another. Just how close were they in their childhood?

"HEIKA!"

"Whaaaaa!" Yuuri jumped from his seat and looked right in front of him where a distressed Günter was looking intently at him, the double-black put a hand to his heart trying to calm it down "Günter! You don't have to scare me like that you know?"

"My apologies, your Majesty." The lilac-haired demon apologized looking relieved now that the young king was acknowledging him again "You seemed so distracted I had to regain your attention somehow."

"Oh… Sorry Günter, I was just…" Yuuri trailed off looking out the window again, Greta had moved up to go sit next to Gwendal, Wolfram was on his way to the table with the book still in hand while the two Ruttenberg survivors stayed in place still chatting animatedly not even bothering to look at the other people, he thought Conrad might have liked to join his brothers but apparently that was not the case.

"Is something wrong, your Majesty?" Günter asked looking out the window as well not understanding why the young king was so deep in thought with what was currently happening outside, it was just an ordinary day except maybe for the fact Gwendal was outside and not in his office as usual.

"How were they like when they were little?" Yuuri asked suddenly confusing Günter for a brief moment, the Demon turned to look at the younger man raising an eyebrow elegantly asking him silently to elaborate. Yuuri decided to point out only the one person who seemed distant at that moment "Conrad with his brothers, I mean, he spends a lot of time with Wolfram since I came here and all but Gwendal… I don't recall ever seeing them together just enjoying each other's company without duty or important decisions in the middle and… Well with Wolfram it's more out of duty as well but…Erm, what I'm trying to say is, how was Gwendal and Conrad's relationship when they were younger, were they as distant as they are now? Or well that's the impression I get at least."

"Oh I see now." Günter smiled kindly at the double-black after he was done with his ramble before returning his gaze out the window "Well Gwendal, as you know, has been quite a loner since he was little but he does have a soft spot for each of his brothers. Gwendal never hated humans like Wolfram but he had a noticeable dislike for Conrart's father, that never stopped him from loving his little brother very much though. They had some tender moments in their childhood; actually it was thanks to Gwendal that Conrart stopped fearing thunderstorms."

"Conrad was afraid of thunderstorms? Really?" Yuuri asked quite surprised; his godfather was not a person he had imagined fearing anything other than losing someone dear to him, but actually imagining him being afraid of something as simple as thunderstorms was quite shocking to him. His adviser nodded with a soft smile on his face.

"Yes, he was very afraid of them when he was very young. Usually if a thunderstorm hit the castle at night he used to go sleep with his mom and dad, whichever was in the castle at the moment. There was one time though, when Conrart was just eleven Mazoku years old and Gwendal forty, which would be around three and eight Earth years old respectively if I'm doing my math right, that Conrart's father went out on a mission to a human land while Celli-sama had some duties as Maou in the Kabelnikoff lands …"

_**Flashback**_

"_But mother, why can't you take me with you?" A very young version of Conrart asked the current Maou with watery eyes, a small hand clutching her dress trying to prevent her from going. The green-eyed woman looked down at her youngest son with a sad smile, she knew it was thunderstorm season and that the boy was very afraid__ of them but her brother had been very clear that she should not be taking any of her children with her this time. No matter how many times she begged he allowed her to take at least Conrart in the trip he never agreed._

"_I am very sorry Conrart but my brother believes it would be better if you stayed here." Cecile answered kneeling before the brunette and running a hand softly through his hair trying to make him calm down "You won't be alone Conrart; Gwendal and Günter will take good care of you and so will the guards and maids, if you need anything you can go to any of them and they will find a way to help you."_

"_Her Majesty is right Conrart, you can count on us." A young Günter neared the younger boy, at his sixty-five Mazoku years he had the body of a human with thirteen years of living, he was smiling kindly trying to look reassuring to the half-breed "Your mother and Anissina will only be gone for a few days and then they will come back before you even realize it."_

_Günter heard Gwendal grumping behind him at the mention of the young invento__r coming back soon, he still hadn't fully recovered from her latest failure but he always told the prince it could have been worse. And true it could have, that machine literally exploded while he was still __**inside**__ it, so the fact that the only remaining mark was a scar in his arm, which would disappear next time the castle's healer casted his magic on Gwendal was a relief for everyone around._

"_Be a good prince and follow everything Günter and Gwendal say, all right? I will bring you a present from those lands." The 26th Maou promised kissing her son on his forehead before turning to the blue-eyed boy and beckoning him to come closer to her. Once within her reach she embraced her first child and whispered in his ear "Make sure he feels safe if a storm comes."_

"_I promise I will, mother." Gwendal assured returning the embrace, he knew though he could very well be lying to her. The door of the room they were currently in opened revealing Raven along with Cecile's brother, Stoffel._

"_Sister, we need to go now or we won't make it to the Kabelnikoff lands before dusk." The blond woman let go of her son and turned to her brother looking solemn, she really was not made for the job having so many responsibilities but her older brother wouldn't give her a rest and she couldn't go against Shinou's wishes and quit the position._

"_I'm coming." She walked up to the door, stopping before Raven could close the door completely behind her "Take care."_

_The three boys were left behind in silence, Conrart's eyes weren't threatening to let tears fall anymore but he did look depressed. Günter put a hand on his shoulder and continued smiling at him making sure the brunette wouldn't feel so alone._

"_Say, how would you like for me to bake you some cookies?" Conrart stared at the violet-eyed Demon for a few seconds before letting a small smile show and nodded gratefully. Günter took Conrart by the hand ready to guide him to the kitchen. He would have never imagined at that moment that years later they would treat each other as complete strangers and just keeping a teacher-student relationship for a long while._

"_If you start pampering him, he will become a spoiled child." Gwendal said catching up with the older demon in the hallway making sure Conrart couldn't hear them. The addressed male sighed and looked at him still smiling slightly._

"_Take it easy on him, he is only eleven and you cannot force him to be as strong as you at this age." Günter said truthfully "Besides, you know he's afraid of thunder and lightning and we probably will be getting a storm tonight, I hope to have him asleep before it starts."_

"_You're acting like a big sister." Gwendal said with a shake of his head, Günter let the obviously-meant-to-be-insult slide. When they reached the end of the hallway, the oldest prince shot a look at his brother, which had come out stricter than he expected, and then walked in the direction opposite to the kitchen. Conrart's hold on Günter's hand tightened at the look._

"_Why is Big Brother angry at me?" The eldest of the two looked shocked at the prince, but his shock turned into understanding the moment he remembered how cold Gwendal's eyes always looked._

"_He is not angry at your Conrart, he is just feeling a little tense because of his studies that is all." Günter assured calmly continuing the way to the kitchen "He could never be really angry at you, he loves you very much."_

"_But I have seen the way he treats my father when we are all together, he will treat me the same way when I'm older." Günter frowned, Conrart might be still very young but it was obvious he was pretty smart and observant for someone his age. But he also was too pessimistic already and that was not healthy for someone his age; his only worry should be to find someone to play with throughout the day and not anything about the relationship between his brother and his father._

"_He will not, I assure you will never receive the same treatment your father receives from your brother."__ Günter kneeled in front of Conrart much like the queen had done moments before "Your father is a stranger to Gwendal but you are part of his family and he will never treat you coldly or leave you behind, you have to trust him and show him you confide in him so he can start trusting you for who you really are."_

"_But how can I do that?" Conrart's eyes now had a small hope in them which made the Mazoku smile once again._

"_You will find a way sooner or later, on your own and just the way you feel is right for you." The young half-breed seemed to think about the words he had just heard for a moment before finally smiling brightly accepting the idea of wanting to prove it._

"_I will find a way I am sure!" He said enthusiastically raising his left fist into the air smiling decided and Günter couldn't help but chuckle at how the action looked like in the little Conrart, it was just too cute._

"_Now then, how about__ we go bake those cookies I promised?" With a new-found high spirit Conrart took the other boy by the hand and ran towards the kitchen, the 'dragged' –because really the kid had not much strength yet- Mazoku smiled satisfied that he had gotten the prince to cheer up but he would have liked it if he hadn't done that alone._

* * *

><p><em>Günter sighed as he watched the youngest son of their current Maou <em>_fast asleep in his bed, Conrart's room was next to his parents' one because he was still too young to get one some other place in the castle but he would have to get a bigger one when he grew up. He had spent the whole day alone with Conrart, Gwendal never joined them for anything at all other than lunch and dinner. He had noticed Conrart tried to start a conversation with Gwendal on his own many times, but every time the hazel-eyed child decided against it in the end not knowing what to say. Günter himself had tried to start a three-way conversation but, much to his annoyance, Gwendal only answered with monosyllables and left the table without as much as a "Thank you for the food" to the maids. He was glad Conrart's spirit hadn't been completely broken by that, the young one still thought he could have some chance with his brother._

_It was still early in the night but he was glad Conrart had gotten tired enough to sleep this early, he was just hoping the storm that was sure to come wouldn't wake the prince or who knows what would happen now that his parents were both away. Günter got up from the chair he was sitting at and walked out the door towards his own room, he was tired himself and would welcome sleep rather easily._

* * *

><p><em>Günter awoke with a start as the thunder outside shook the huge windows of his bedroom and scrambled out of bed running down the halls trying to reach Conrart's bedroom not minding the guards that asked him if something was wrong; if the storm was strong enough to wake him then it definitely had woken the youngest kid as well and he was sure the poor child must be terribly scared. As he turned another hallway nearing his destination he stopped dead in his tracks, the couple of guards that had followed him almost crashed into him at the sudden stop.<em>

_Günter ignored their questions again as he stared ahead of him: There was a little person standing outside Gwendal's room, a pillow clutched to their chest with one hand while the other rested on the door handle. It was undeniable Conrart and he was standing outside Gwendal's room looking scared and insecure due to the storm but his head was raised with determination to do what he had planned when he came here. Günter quickly told the guards to get back to their positions before turning back to the prince so he could see how this would turn out._

_When lightning lit up the sky and another thunder sounded Conrart opened the door quickly with a yelp, he tried to shut it back closed as he entered but the door stayed ajar without notice, the pale demon took this chance to walk up to the door and peek in trying to not be seen. Gwendal had been, apparently, awake since there was light coming from the inside and he soon found out there was a lit candle on the first son's bedside. Günter saw Conrart standing in front of a surprised-looking Gwendal who was sitting on the edge of his bed._

"_What are you doing here Conrart?" Gwendal asked curiously looking at the small boy before him, Conrart was looking at his feet as if they were the most interesting thing in the world. Gwendal waited patiently for a few seconds until Conrart took a visibly deep breath and looked up at him with pleading eyes._

"_Can… Can I stay in your room tonight, Big Brother?" Gwendal's eyebrows rose at the question, seemingly shocked by it._

"_Why are you asking me that?" The eldest brother asked still surprised by the younger's question "Why don't you ask Günter to let you sleep with him, in fact, wasn't he with you in your room?"_

_Günter felt guilty then for leaving the prince's side that night, he probably should have stayed there but he had no __way of knowing the storm would be that strong. But then again, he was very curious at the tone he heard Gwendal using for his latter question, was that a ting of jealousy he heard?_

"_He wasn't with me when I woke up__ and…" There was a pause which made both pure Mazoku raise their brow curious as to what he had to say, Conrart sighed before continuing "And I would feel more secure with you, brother. I feel always more secure when you are with me."_

_As if to prove his point another lightning flashed through the window and __the thunder shook the windows of the room making Conrart jump forward letting his pillow fall on the floor in order of hugging Gwendal's legs which were hanging from the side of the bed. The Voltaire heir seemed shocked after the revelation but he looked even more so stunned by his little brother's actions. Gwendal stared at his frightened brother for a few seconds before slowly resting his hand on top of the brunette's head and moving it soothingly trying to calm the ragged breaths of his half-sibling who was trying not to cry in front of the blue-eyed demon in order of looking braver than he was feeling. After a few strokes the Maou's firstborn moved his hands to Conrart's armpits and raised him so now Conrart had his small arms around the elder's neck, the first son then proceeded to pick the discarded pillow off the floor and then moved to lay the half-breed in his bed._

_Günter saw marveled as Gwendal laid the pillow next to Conrart so he would have something to stop him in case he tried to move towards the end of the bed in his sleep and then took his place next to the small Weller under the covers before blowing out the candle and hugging the kid next to him._

_The lilac-haired observer smiled to himself and closed the door to allow the princes to have their privacy to sleep. He got up and walked back to his room knowing fully well he wouldn't be needed in the next three days Queen Cecile would be away._

_**Ends Flashback**_

"During the next few nights Conrart slept in Gwendal's room, during the day Gwendal tried to explain Conrart what exactly was a storm and why he should not be scared of the loud noises it provoked or the sudden flashes lightning caused. It took almost two weeks but Conrart lost his fear of thunderstorms completely and he didn't have to go into his brother's room for that anymore." Günter finished his explanation looking at his King, he was looking back at him with an awed expression which made the advisor quite amused and thought the double-black with that look was cuter than ever before.

"Wow, I mean… That story is so amazing and touching, but funny to hear Gwendal could have been jealous of you for treating Conrad so well at some point." Yuuri said amazed and amused at the same time but also quite touched none-the-less.

"Gwendal has a weird way to show he cares sometimes, but he never let his hatred for Conrart's father affect his relationship with his little brother." Günter commented happily before chuckling lightly "Besides, Conrart was such a cute kid and you know how fond Gwendal is of cute things. I think he can still see little Conrart in his memories and take off that warrior image that Conrart as created of himself from time to time and just remember what it used to be like before Wolfram started denying his bond with his half-human brother and before he left for that awful war twenty years ago."

"But I hardly see them together just for the sake of it, I would like it if they acted more like brothers and not soldiers you know?" Yuuri replied tiredly, he really would like to see the two elder brothers lay back for a bit and just chat because they feel like it and maybe then Wolfram would take their example and follow their lead; they were his role-models after all.

"They are soldiers by heart, that cannot be helped." Günter said looking out the window and smiling softly before speaking again "Although, there are still moments."

Yuuri raised an eyebrow before turning his head back outside, he smiled as well feeling glad of looking at that scene. Wolfram and Greta were now by the flowers making flower crowns and true that was a cute scene, but what really made him feel better was that Yozak was no-where in sight and now Conrad was sitting with Gwendal at the table drinking a cup of tea each; Gwendal's paperwork forgotten as he talked about something with his brown-haired younger half-brother. Yuuri wasn't sure what they were talking about but both wore calm expression which made him know whatever the theme was it was pleasant for both parts.

"There are still moments, however rare they are." Günter sighed and got up from the chair he had sat on at some point during his story. His voice went back to his loud overly-passionate one "All right Heika, back to our lessons!"

"Aw Günter, can't we just stop now?" Yuuri complained, his attention fully back to his teacher who shook his head quickly making his lilac locks flow with his movements.

"We are studying until the agreed hour, plus thirty more minutes."

"What?" Yuuri yelled raising from his chair, his features in a shocked and displeased expression "But whyyyyyyyyy?"

"No whining your Majesty, we lost thirty minutes with your little distraction so now we shall spend thirty more wonderful minutes alone together in this room." Günter's voice now was dreamy and the king knew he had lost his serious advisor to the overly-dramatic hyper one who would jump to hug him at any moment he felt the necessity. It was not the most pleasant Günter to be with. Yuuri's head fell onto the desk quite ungracefully as the wind-wielder started all over again from the point he thought the Maou had lost interest in.

"Ugh, this is going to be a long day."

* * *

><p>TBC~<p> 


	2. Secret Puu

**Fanfiction title: **The little moments

**Fanfiction summary:**One-shot series in which Yuuri gets to hear from people in the castle stories about the former Maou's three sons and the moments they remember the most from their early years.

**Chapter title: **Secret Puu

**Featured brothers: **Wolfram and Gwendal

**Story teller: **Anissina

**Chapter number: **2/11

**Authoress: **BlackArcticFox

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Kyou Kara Maou! Or any of the characters in this story.

…**..**

**Chapter 2: **_Secret Puu_

_***Boom!***_

"What the-" Yuuri jumped back after hearing an explosion from within the room that stood just a few steps ahead of him, the strength of the blow was so strong that it snapped open the doors almost making them break off its hinges. Smoke came out from the room in a steady amount filling the hallway with its dry smell, the Maou brought up a hand to cover his nose and mouth to stop the smoke from entering his system as his eyes were already watering from it.

Taking a closer look to the place he was in he soon realized the room that housed the explosion was Anissina's laboratory; staying there was not a wise decision so he turned around ready to go anywhere else but there when, suddenly, he heard someone coughing behind him. Turning back to look at the smoking hallway he saw the red-haired inventor walking out from her lab trying to stop her coughing and fanning her hand in front of her face in order of getting smoke out of her way. Yuuri wasted no time in racing towards her.

"Anissina-san!" The double-black took hold of the female's arm and helped her move away from the smoking hallway and to the floor below where she could breathe more openly. After a few more coughs and deep breaths the woman regained her composure and smiled at her king.

"Thank you, Heika." She thanked sincerely before frowning and bringing a hand to her chin while resting her other one against her hip in deep thought "Another failure, and I hadn't even had the chance to properly try it yet, where did I go wrong?"

"Anissina-san?" Yuuri started, he thought maybe the feminist should see Gisela just to be sure she was completely healthy after the explosion; she was inside the room when whatever-kun exploded so maybe a small check-up wouldn't hurt "Shouldn't we look for Gisela and make sure you're fine?"

"Eh? Oh, do not worry Heika!" Anissina was woken from her thoughts at the question, she waved her hand dismissively at the double black smiling once again "The explosion was strong but I have been in worse situations, the little smoke I breathed in will be cleaned out of my body in no time."

"Are you sure?" Anissina nodded confidently in response, Yuuri smiled believing her before noticing something he had completely missed before "Um, Anissina-san, what is that?"

"You mean this?" The female Mazoku took the small bundle that was hanging from the tools belt she was currently wearing in her hand and showed it to the boy. Yuuri took a closer look at the white and brown bundle just to come to the conclusion that it looked like either a pig or a raccoon… Maybe a bear with white body but brown ears, paws and long tail.

"Gwendal's?"

"If you are asking about who knitted it then yes, it is one of his creations." Anissina answered with a chuckle; Gwendal's knitting "style" was no to be confused with anyone else's that was most definite and it had always amused her how he seemed to stay at the same level since the very first time she taught him how to knit. She finished her answer "But it does not belong to him."

"Greta's?" The Maou asked knowing Gwendal usually only knitted for Greta and if that plush wasn't his it was likely it belonged now to his human daughter, he was surprised when the answerer shook her head "Then whose is that… what it is?"

"It is a cat and it belongs to our Little Lord Brat."

"It's Wolfram's?" Yuuri asked shocked upon hearing that, he had never seen that thing before… Then again if Wolfram kept the plush in his room it was natural he never saw it since he had never stepped into the blonde's room mainly because said blond preferred to have Yuuri sharing his bed with him and Greta. The latter however, now liked to sleep in her own room more-often-than-not. Another thought suddenly occurred to the king "Why do you have it?"

"Because Wolfram accidentally cut it open with a dagger and wanted me to fix it, he would not dare to ask Gwendal to do it." Yuuri had to wonder how the heck someone could cut _a plush_ open _by accident _with _a dagger_. Then again, this was Wolfram they were talking about and maybe it would be better to not ask about that. Taking a closer look to the knitted animal the teen could make out the damage inflicted to it near the tail and almost touching what would be the right leg; it would be hard to fix.

"Why wouldn't he ask Gwendal to do it? He knitted it after all." Anissina's smile changed suddenly from content and playful to soft as she brought the doll closer to her and looked down at it.

"Because he doesn't want Gwendal to know that something happened to the very first knitted animal his big brother made him." She answered turning back to her companion who was looking at her with a somewhat surprised expression "After Wolfram was born he usually received knitted hats, scarves or blankies from Gwendal because those actually looked like what they were supposed to be and Wolfram wore and used the gifts as much as he could. This present however came when Wolfram was a cute little thing of only twenty-six years old and Gwendal, at his sixty-nine, was already unable to resist him so he gave his little prince everything he asked for and so…"

_**Flash**__**back**_

"_I canno__t believe you are seriously doing this for him." Anissina sighed shaking her head as she walked beside Gwendal down the halls, the prince was looking stern as always but that expression didn't look as hard as it usually did to Anissina being that said prince was carrying a small white kitten with brown ears, paws and tail; the animal was pretty cute she had to admit._

"_I see nothing wrong with this, it will teach him discipline and responsibility." Gwendal argued back not looking ashamed in the least for what he was doing.__ He liked Anissina even if he would never admit it out loud but he sometimes got tired of her since she loved visiting the Blood Pledge Castle too often and her parents agreed to let her do as she pleased as long as she didn't use her older brother as guinea pig for her inventions anymore which only led her to make Gwendal her favorite victim much to his dismay._

"_You're spoiling him; both, you and Conrart, should be stricter with the brat." The blue-eyed female said, the young blond might not be a total pain in the ass as of yet but he certainly was stuck-up with the servants and anyone else when he wanted to and, while some might find it cute in him being that he could pull off the pouts in that face that would look like a human five-year-old kid's one to whoever who didn't know he was a Mazoku, that didn't mean he could keep on growing up so conceited. _

_What was even more perplexing in this case with Gwendal was the fact that this was the same grey-haired boy who, at some point, thought Conrart was being too pampered in his early childhood but, then again, after the storms incident Günter had told her about, Gwendal himself had started pampering the brunette brother somewhat until their blond sibling was born: Now it was the blond who was pampered by both of his older brothers._

"_I am not spoiling him, besides Stoffel won't allow him to play with kids his age other than Elizabeth__ and that is not good enough." Gwendal said looking at his friend for a second before looking back down at the creature in his arms creating an effect on him only cute things could create "If Wolfram can take care of this kitten he will prove he is responsible enough and will help make him more mature sooner… And it will give him a friend even if they are unable to understand each other."_

"_Then give him his own horse already!" The redhead snapped annoyed "If anyone were to make a comment on him looking cute with that thing in his arms he will get pissed."_

"_As if someone would dare now that he is starting to learn to use his Maryoku." The Voltaire heir said simply with an amused chuckle remembering the last__ time someone –namely Raven- had said the prince looked cute with the clothes their mother had __**forced **__him to wear for her he had his cape burned to a crisp by said 'Cute little prince' "Besides he's too young to ride his own horse, I barely let him ride with Conrart as is."_

"_Conrart was running around on his first horse when he had Wolfram's age and so were you and you know he's been asking for his own horse for a while now." The young inventor kept insisting that giving a kitten to Wolfram was not the best idea and not because she didn't trust Wolfram and all the other reasons, while true, were not the main reasons for her persistence but if the older demon wouldn't hear her out then she had to be honest with him "Besides, you know if Stoffel finds the cat he will kick it out of the castle."_

"_Wolfram has been wanting this kitten since he saw him the other day wandering around the castle grounds from his window and if Stoffel hasn't found out about him while he roamed free then I highly doubt he will find him when he is secured inside my room where Wolfram will be taking care of him." Gwendal explained as they neared the garden where they were sure to find the youngest prince playing around the flowers chasing butterflies or something along those lines since sword practice with Conrart would be suspended until the half-breed returned from his latest journey with his father. Anissina raised an eyebrow at this._

"_This isn't only about Wolfram then, you also want this kitten for yourself." There was a faint blush barely visible against Gwendal's tanned skin but it was visible enough for his childhood friend and that was all she needed as reply "Well anyway, you can count on me, I will not say a thing about this to anyone."_

"_Thank you, Anissina." Gwendal thanked once they reached the gardens, sure enough Wolfram was there picking flowers, they supposed to make a flower crown like the ones their mother had taught him how to make a few years back "Wolfram!"_

"_Ah, Big brother!" The green-eyed Mazoku exclaimed upon seeing his brother walking down the stairs with Anissina, she couldn't help but think it was adorable how Wolfram looked up at his brothers with such admiration in those emeralds of his "Lady Anissina!"_

"_Without the 'Lady' please Wolfram, it makes me feel older than Gwendal looks." She almost snickered at the glare Gwendal gave her while trying to keep the kitten from moving too much in his hands that now were hidden behind his back ready to give his surprise to his little brother; she knew it wasn't his fault that he had inherited that treat from his father of looking older than he was because, while he should look like a human in the first phase of puberty, he looked like one who had just went by it whole, age-wise. Besides, as the proud woman she was, she had all the right to make fun of him since she did look like a female Mazoku of sixty-five years old should look like: Like a thirteen-year-old human._

"_Alright then, Anissina." The blond conceded with a nod and a smile, she smiled back. He seemed in a good mood that day and if he was being polite and nice to her she didn't want to blow it by saying anything else._

"_Hey Wolfram, come here; I have something to show you but you must promise to keep it as a secret." Wolfram's eyes sparkled with curiosity at the grey-haired prince and nodded excitedly wondering what kind of secret it was it was his big brother wanted to share with him. Gwendal took his hands from behind his back and showed the small animal to the blond who gasped in utter delight before taking the kitten in his arms and hugging it close._

"_You found it Big Brother! You really found it!" The creature meowed surprised by the sudden embrace he found himself in so Gwendal called Wolfram's attention by touching the smaller demon's shoulder and looking down at him trying to look stern but, for some reason, the scene before him wouldn't let him get his gaze as hard as he intended so he sighed and kneeled in front of his little brother._

"_Listen Wolfram, you can keep him as long as you allow me to keep him hidden in my room and take care of him in there." Wolfram pouted at those words still hugging the kitten close._

"_But why can't I keep it… him in my room?" Anissina noted the kid was spoiled, yes, but smart if he caught up the fact he should be calling the animal by its sex and not as a thing when Gwendal was present. She kept on watching the exchange curious as to how hard or how easy Gwendal could explain the fire-wielder the situation and make him agree._

"_We have to keep him hidden from everyone or Mother's brother will make us get rid of him and you know he likes to pay surprise visits to you in your room so we cannot be sure he will never find him in there." Gwendal started the explanation unconsciously running his free hand through the soft fur of the feline who purred in response now that he had gotten used to being held by the smaller child "He never goes into my room so it is unlikely the kitten will be discovered in there, if we are cautious this little lad will stay with us for a long time."_

_The female Mazoku saw how Wolfram's pout disappeared to give space to a thoughtful expression which soon morphed into an understanding smile._

"_You are right Big Brother, it will be safer if you hide him." That confirmed it, no matter how conceited the young prince was he was just as smart and his brothers when they were his age and having them as role-models it was obvious he always took their words into consideration unlike the words of a certain pair of adult demons who were always around the Maou "helping" her with her position "Should we let Little Big Brother know about this when he gets back?"_

"_Of course, we will need Conrart's help with this; he can keep the kitten hidden in his room for a few days as well." Anissina was sure she would be asked to keep the kitten hidden in her room or lab__oratory someday, not that she minded the idea "What will you call him, Wolfram?"_

"_Puu!"_

_**Pause Flashback**_

"What kind of name is Puu?" Yuuri asked Anissina with a raised eyebrow "He always complains about Pochi's name but he called a cat Puu!"

"Well he was very young so ridiculous names were his specialty." The story teller replied with a shrug "Besides, that's what Gwendal used to call him until he reached his twenty-one and asked to be called by his name."

"Ok well I guess it kinda makes sense then." Yuuri said out loud to himself scratching the back of his head in thought, he knew Gwendal sometimes still called him that instead of "brat" but nowadays it was used more as an attention call rather than a nickname most of all when it was the full Wagamama Puu name "Erm… so you got to keep the cat?"

"Well when it comes to Wagamama Puu and what he wants we didn't have a choice." Anissina replied with a roll of her eyes but chuckling lightly before continuing "Anyway, two moths went by without a problem; Conrart helped for a while after he came back from his current journey and before leaving once again for a new one, Lady Celli was aware of the kitten but kept the secret with us. Puu was growing fast and it was hard to keep him locked in one place. Our luck wouldn't be worse as during Stoffel's birthday…"

_**Back to a Flashback**_

"_Thank you everyone for coming to celebrate__ this day with me." Anissina saw Gwendal roll his eyes with a sigh sounding exasperated with the whole event and she couldn't help but agree with his attitude; the whole thing was boring. The blue-eyed female glanced at the Queen sitting at the throne with Wolfram sitting on a chair next to her, both of them were just as bored as her but she knew everyone else in the room was enjoying the dull atmosphere; the nobility was that monotone._

_The Kabelnikoff girl turned to the window just wanting to go out to the balcony and take a break from all the people there but she wouldn't be able to until Stoffel was done talking simply out of respect. She moved her gaze back to said man before doing a double take of the balcony upon noticing a white and brown fur-ball walking into the room as if looking for something: It was Puu!_

"_Gwendal," Anissina called tugging at the prince's sleeve, he turned to her with a glare but she ignored it and motioned towards the balcony with her head "Look."_

_Gwendal's eyes widened upon seeing their secret pet entering the room quietly. He looked back to the front to make sure his uncle hadn't seen the feline and was relieved to confirm__ he hadn't but he also noticed Wolfram had seen his cat and was now glancing nervously, yet discreetly, between Puu and the talking man. The Maou's first son gave two steps to the side while staring at the blond man making sure his movements weren't seen, Anissina decided to stay in place since it would attract more attention if she moved with him and opted for keeping an eye on the young fire-wielder in case he wanted to go help his brother; he was anxious but made not attempt on standing up possibly understanding it would make everything worse._

_The redhead stole a glance to the earth-wielder and noticed he was currently frozen in place looking at their adopted animal__, very curious about this she glanced at the cat only to find him staring intently at something at the front of the room, following his gaze she found out what it was that had caught Puu's attention and almost gasped. She could have sworn she heard a Bad Omen bird crying out from somewhere outside. Gwendal gave another step towards Puu just as Stoffel spread his arms to give effect to his speech and then all hell broke lose._

_Puu sprinted towards Stoffel's right arm tr__ying to take hold of the couple of fluffy balls hanging from the jacket's sleeve. Gwendal threw himself at the cat trying to catch him only to land hard on the floor grasping thin air. Anissina also ran after the cat but there was no way she could reach him before he reached his objective, even Wolfram tried to catch Puu in mid-air after the pet lunged at his prey but being unable to do so._

_All the guests gasped as the cat landed on Stoffel's arm hearing his scream when sharp claws dug into his skin through his clothes. Said claws only dug deeper when the scared Mazoku started to move his arm wildly trying to get the animal off him. The guests could only stare at the quite uncouth behavior displayed before them. Gwendal ran up to the Maou's brother asking him firmly to stay still but his requests were completely ignored as the queen's advisor kept trying to get the attacker off him so the blue-eyed prince had no choice but take hold of the older demon by his shoulders to keep him put. The moment the blond felt the pressure on his shoulders he yelped again but gave his body and brain time to get their communication back up allowing him to take hold of the cat by the scruff of his neck and letting him fall on the ground. The feline ran away from the angered noble and into Wolfram's arms who broke free from his mother's embrace and pushed Raven away from his position in front of the queen in order to accept Puu into his hold. Gwendal and Anissina promptly joined the young prince where he stood receiving the heated glare from the eldest Spitzberg full force._

"_You three, in my office right now."_

* * *

><p><em>Nothing changed what Anissina had predicted since the beginning, not even the Maou was able to convince her brother to let Puu stay in the castle. When the queen had intended to make that an order Stoffel reminded her the show the animal gave to the nobles and how it would affect not only his but her own image an<em>_d maybe even the one of her sons' and she knew she could not refuse to let the poor pet go. Wolfram threw quite a tantrum and refused to speak to the man even during the daily meals, his bedroom door permanently closed for the advisor ever since._

"_I hate that man!" Gwendal said to Anissina as he sat on his bed knitting furiously to take out the stress not really knowing what he wanted to knit and just letting his hands work on their own accord "He doesn't even have a valid reasons to kick the kitten out, he only did it because he doesn't like cats."_

"_I t__old you this was going to happen." The girl said with a sigh not liking to be right this time. Wolfram was depressed showing it with his tantrums, Gwendal was furious and letting it all out knitting and she herself was pretty upset and she suspected Conrart would be pretty upset himself when he returned and found out what had happened "It is frustrating not even her Majesty could do anything against this decision."_

"_I know and now she feels pretty bad herself." The first son sighed knowing his mother felt awful for not being able to convince her brother to let them keep their pet__ "But Wolfram is taking this the hardest."_

"_Yes, he really was very attached to Puu." Anissina said softly; truth to be told the animal had made Wolfram way more likeable and now he gave two steps backwards with his attitude "I really wish he could have Puu back."_

_She turned back to her childhood friend when she heard no response from him and saw him staring intently at the white knitted piece he had been working on moments ago. She raised an eyebrow and was about to call his name when he jumped from the bed and ran towards the case he kept yarn in quickly looking for something. Interested in this the female stayed eager to see what would come out of the boy's actions._

* * *

><p><em>The next day by sunset Gwendal was standing outside Wolfram's room holding a brand new knitted animal in his left hand. Anissina was a few steps away just watching interested, the grey-haired demon knocked the wooden door firmly.<em>

"_Go away!" The inventor almost chuckled; the brat really was not willing to try to talk to anyone. That was probably because he didn't know who was knocking, the eldest brother had to announce himself._

"_Wolfram, it is I." The door almost immediately flew open revealing the small blond looking somewhat surprised to see his brother standing there since they hadn't spoken that much for the last four days starting when they had been discovered in their little secret._

"_Big Brother, what brings you here?" The older pure Mazoku kneeled in front of his brother like he had done a little over two months back and held out the hand with his present towards the green-eyed demon who looked curiously at the white and brown object._

"_I would like it if you helped me keep this kitten safe by your side." Gwendal said taking one of Wolfram's hands in his own and resting it on the soft present waiting for a response. The fire-wielder looked at the bundle some more before gazing into his brother's blue eyes. Anissina wasn't sure what the youngest prince found in there that told him any different than what the expressionless face Gwendal was wearing would say to anyone who passed by but his hand finally gabbed firmly the gift before throwing his arms around the older boy's neck._

"_I promise nothing will happen to it." Their only spectator couldn't help but smile at those words as the embrace was returned with only one arm but firmly none-the-less._

_**Ends Flashback**_

"That promise was kind of broken today as you can see so Wolfram won't dare to ask Gwendal to fix it." Anissina finished putting the plush back to its place hanging from her belt.

"I knew Gwendal had a very soft spot for Wolfram, I just knew it!" Yuuri exclaimed as if he had made a scientific discovery that would forever change the world. His accomplished smile soon turned into a frown as he spoke more seriously this time "Stoffel was very selfish. I can't believe he would kick the kitten out of the castle just like that, I would have loved to see him trying to get Puu off him."

"It was quite a sight to behold." The woman commented amused "And of course Gwendal has a soft spot for Wolfram, a big one. Quite honestly, Little Lord Brat has a very special place in everyone's heart since he was born; even after he became unbearable upon discovering that Conrart was half-human he was dear to us and, now that you have helped him grow up, his place in our hearts has warmed considerably."

"Does Wolfram know you think that way about him?" The king was shocked upon hearing those words come out of the feminist's mouth and she couldn't help but laugh at his expression.

"Not verbally, never would anyone have the courage to tell him that." She answered as if though that was the most obvious thing in the world "But I am sure he knows because I know that he also has a place in his heart for each of us, even me, but he will never say it out loud due to his precious pride."

"Yeah, him and his pride." That pride the blond had could be a problem sometimes but it was also one of the things that made Wolfram well… Wolfram.

"Excuse me your Majesty but I must retire now if I want to have this thing fixed before dinner. I do not feel like toying with Wolfram's fiery temper today, thank you again for helping me earlier." Anissina bowed as the Maou rubbed the nape of his neck chuckling nervously.

"It was nothing, really." The demon turned to the side and walked a few steps before stopping and turning back to the double-black with a playful smile.

"By the way, would you be kind enough to go check if Günter is still unconscious in my laboratory? Maybe you should call Gisela after all." And then she was gone.

Yuuri stayed there for a few moments just staring ahead with those words going around his head. After a minute or so he snapped out of it and made his mind quickly enough: Günter was probably unconscious in that room and would probably need his help to wake up so they can get out, waking him could be easy if he wasn't actually hurt and Yuuri was sure the head of the Christ family would be so pleased to see him his senses would be back in mere seconds and he would show gratefulness to his King by hugging him tightly…

Yup, he would go to look for Gisela first and bring her back so she would be able to take care of her father from the beginning!

**...**

TBC~


	3. Winged Promise

**Fanfiction title: **The little moments

**Fanfiction summary: **One-shot series in which Yuuri gets to hear from people in the castle stories about the former Maou's three sons and the moments they remember the most from their early years.

**Chapter title: **Winged Promise

**Featured brothers: **Wolfram and Conrad

**Story teller: **Gisela

**Chapter number: **3/11

**Authoress: **BlackArcticFox

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Kyou Kara Maou! Or any of the characters in this story.

…**..**

**Chapter 3: **_Winged Promise_

"Wow, I can't believe I finished so early. I'm getting faster at reading Mazoku and it's much easier now!" Yuuri said to himself walking towards the garden smiling widely and feeling accomplished after finishing all his paperwork almost half an hour earlier than expected so now Greta, Wolfram and Conrad wouldn't be waiting for him to finish his work as always; it would be him waiting for Wolfram to be done with his training, for Greta to be done with her "princess classes" of the day and for Conrad to be done watching over his little brother as the training progressed "I hope they don't take too long, I really want to go into town today and have some fun."

He reached the garden soon enough wondering what to do with his spare time now that he actually had some. There were no real ideas in his mind so any kind of distraction from anyone would be well accepted.

"Good afternoon, your Majesty." Yuuri's head snapped towards where the voice had come from finding a certain green-haired healer standing near Lady Celli's special collection of flowers smiling kindly at him. He smiled back pleased to find the distraction he had asked for.

"Hey there, Gisela." The Maou went to stand closer to the woman so he could start a conversation with the female more comfortably "What are you doing here?"

"I am waiting for his Excellency to finish his training so I can check upon the soldiers in case they need my medical services." She answered gently, so it wasn't only him who was waiting for Wolfram to finish his training, admittedly, for entirely different reasons "What are you doing here, Heika?"

"I have a ride through town planned with Greta, Wolfram and Conrad so I'm waiting for them to be done with their chores." Gisela nodded at his answer "By the way, how is Günter today? I haven't seen him in two days."

"Oh, he is perfectly fine and will be able to resume to his activities tomorrow." The green-eyed Mazoku answered with a wave of her hand "And he shall stay healthy unless he lets himself be caught by Lady Von Kabelnikoff again."

"Yeah, I'm surprised it was him the one who got the "honor" to be guinea pig this time." Surprising due to the simple fact Gwendal was also in the castle at the time and would have been just normal for Anissina to get him to power-up the new invention she had been working on leaving Günter as a second option. Gisela chuckled at his comment before looking back down at the flowers next to them fondly.

"The castle seems very peaceful, does it not?" The half-breed gave a nod agreeing with her while looking down at the flowers as well, he was at this moment standing in front of the spot where the Beautiful Wolfram and the Conrad stands upon Earth met; it was his favorite spot since both flowers clashed nicely against each other, in his personal opinion at least.

"Whaaaaa!" Yuuri suddenly yelped jumping back the moment he saw something flying out of the flowers and just above his head. Following the unknown flying object with his eyes he quickly realized that the dangerous creature… was a small brown bird. His embarrassment upon the discovery only grew after he became aware of Günter's adopted daughter giggling at him.

"Please forgive me, your Majesty." Gisela apologized between giggles as she noticed her king's face turn yet another shade of red; but she couldn't help it since her king had sounded anything but manly with that yelp… Much like her father when he got too excited or distressed.

"I'm sure that was pathetic." The double-black admitted sheepishly, he could have sworn he heard a voice calling him 'Wimp' from somewhere in the castle… The training grounds to be more precise and he barely caught himself from automatically replying to that statement "But how was I to know a bird was among the Wolfram's and the Conrad's?"

"I actually believe a bird among those two flowers is quite special." A dark eyebrow was raised at that, midnight eyes sparkling with curiosity.

"Why special?" Gisela lowered herself to her knees near of where the monarch was standing at and sighed.

"When I was younger I was able to visit the castle every other time. By the time my father adopted me, his Excellency Gwendal had already started his soldier training in the same school my father would be instructor at someday: The Shin Makoku Military Academy." Yuuri nodded remembering that school, how could he not? Conrad and Günter had an interesting spar there some time ago, that was also the place Gisela had graduated from. Günter had claimed it was there where he had first met Conrad and he now knew that was not the case or not completely true at least being that the last time Günter had seen Conrad before the latter's admission into the Academy was a little before Wolfram was born, the one who got to actually see the brunette was Gisela "Back then he was training so he could become the instructor though, with the man who was currently in charge of that position; Gwendal-Kakka's uncle himself."

"I didn't know that." The teenager said thoughtfully, he never knew who was in charge of the classes at all apart from Günter, he knew the school was being managed at the moment by the Roshvall family but he never really went to research through the past instructors or anything. Gisela looked at him for a brief moment before returning her gaze to the display of colors in front of her and continuing softly.

"Whenever my father needed to leave to meet with Lord von Voltaire and there was no-one home to take care of me he would bring me here since I am just a little younger than Lord Weller. It was one of those times that I found the two younger brothers sparring here in the garden; this happened a week before his Excellency Conrart left for what would be his last journey with his father…"

_**Flashback**_

_Gisela smiled at the sight of the young princes practicing with their swords from her spot at the steps leading to the garden, Wolfram's sword was smaller than Conrart's since he was still not strong enough to carry one like the one his brother had. Wolfram's body was still too lithe at his thirty-eight years old resembling to that of a seven-year-old human, his older brother looked like an eleven-year-old human already at his fifty-two and she was just a bit younger than the brunette; having forty-nine years of living she presented the body of a human girl almost reaching her tenth birthday._

"_Never lower your guard, Wolfram." Conrart said to the blond who nodded once before throwing another attack with a small battle cry. The youngest sibling looked already tired and was panting but still feeling willing to keep going until he did it right, his opponent was barely breaking a sweat._

_The match continued for a few more minutes until they heard a strong "Bad Omen" cry from above. The attention of the three people in the gardens was brought to the sky where they saw one of those strange, yet common, blue birds chasing after something much smaller over the place they were currently standing at. They weren't able to see the object clearly but, by the desperate chirps that came from it, it was obviously a small bird that was destined to become its chaser's lunch._

"_Hey you! Leave it alone!" Wolfram yelled at the blue animal, his yells went unheard as the aerial chase continued before their eyes._

"_I am afraid we cannot save the bird." Conrart said sadly resting a hand on his baby brother's shoulder. The green-eyed demon looked at his sibling with sad shock before returning his gaze to the bird just in time to see the bigger beast closing its beak capturing its desired prey. Wolfram gasped and without a second thought threw his arm up with his extended hand directed towards the sky letting out a fireball the size of his head aimed directly at the Bad Omen bird, the sudden movement and appearance of the fire made Gisela cry out in surprise and made Conrart jump away from the small Mazoku; the fireball hit its target square on its chest. _

_The animal opened its beak to let out a cry of pain, the captured prey was freed of the deadly prison just to fall towards the ground without giving any sign of being able to stop itself. Gisela and Wolfram gasped at the same time as the bird came crumbling down, however Conrart was able to recover from the shock and ran as fast as he could to the center of the garden cupping his hands and throwing himself in time to catch the small creature before it hit the floor unlike the brunette's body which fell flat on the ground. The green-haired female ran down the steps she had been standing on and reached the Maou's second son's side at the same time the third son did._

"_Are you unharmed, your Majesty?" The female demon asked as the questioned prince sat up keeping his hands enclosed around the fallen bird, he turned to smile at her._

"_I am perfectly fine Gisela, thank you." Wolfram kneeled in front of his half-brother looking intently at the enclosed hands. Conrart opened up his hands to allow the blond to take a look at what was caught. Green eyes widened at the sight of the small brown feathered body matted with some blood coming out of gashes it must have gotten from the sharp teeth the Bad Omen bird possessed._

"_Oh no, it is badly hurt." The fire-wielder breathed out worried over the bird, he quickly turned to the only girl there "Gisela, can you help?"_

"_I… I am not sure, I just started to train my healing Majutsu recently and I haven't had much practice yet." She confessed timidly. The brown-eyed boy stood up and faced her with a soft smile._

"_Do what you can and we shall worry about taking care of it afterwards." Gisela looked at him for a few seconds surprised he actually seemed to trust she would be able to do something, finally she sighed defeated still not quite believing her own abilities but willing to try for the royal family._

"_Let us take it inside first."_

* * *

><p><em>They were fast in taking the bird inside the castle, Conrart had asked a maid to bring an empty cage of the ones used for the pigeons they trained to send messages. The cage was brought to Wolfram's room and the bird was promptly settled inside it. Gisela got one of her hands in the cage through the small door without difficulty and held it over the animal's battered body. The pair of half-brothers looked intently as a vivid green glow surrounded the female Mazoku's hand and stared amazed as the cuts in the bird's body started to slowly disappear as though they had never been there.<em>

_They stood like that for a couple of minutes before the glow dissipated and the rookie healer exhaled feeling somewhat drained but pleased and satisfied with herself; being a very small patient she had been able to heal each and every wound the bird had received from its predator's teeth and beak but it still was draining enough to make her feel as if she had been the one sparring with Conrart earlier that day and not Wolfram._

"_I believe it should be fine now but rest is needed, a couple of days should be enough." She announced at last with a proud yet gentle smile, Conrart smiled thankfully at her while Wolfram let out an audible sigh of relief before crawling up next to the taller girl to get a better look at the healed animal which was now on its feet giving small skips around the cage looking just flawlessly adorable._

"_Little Big Brother," The blond called turning to his mother's second son with a curious glance "What should we feed it with?"_

"_It is a grown-up bird so the food for our pigeons should be enough for this little one as well, we can keep watch until it eats to make sure it has no problem with those seeds. We will also need to bring water and if it gets dirty with blood should the bird decide to bath we shall change it for clean water." The middle prince went up to the door to tell the four guards standing outside –Stoffel's orders to have four of them stationed outside every bedchamber occupied by the royal family whenever he was out with explicit orders of not allowing cats in- to ask the maids to bring a small bowl with seeds and another with fresh water before returning to his brother's side. Once seated he turned to the green-eyed girl "Thank you Gisela, you did an outstanding job."_

"_Thank you for the compliment, your Majesty." Gisela stood up with a small bow of her head and went to sit on a chair near the door; her father had told her that, whenever it was an animal she was treating, she had to stay for a while with a healed patient in order of making sure everything was actually working well but the healer trainee also knew the males needed privacy at the moment._

"_Wolfram, what you did was very dangerous." Conrart suddenly said sounding dead serious gaining the full attention from the youngest prince "You know casting your Maryoku so suddenly with so much strength could be dangerous for you since the power could turn against you; that is why you were given a chant. Fire is the most unpredictable element and you should know that already."_

"_I do know that, Little Big Brother." The scolded demon admitted ashamed but looking up into his brother's eyes hopefully "But if I had used the chant I would have not been able to save the bird and I wanted to save it, I really did. Besides, I know you and your father have saved lives in your journeys and I was hoping it would help me be more like you."_

"_I have never saved lives by putting myself in danger." The elder explained calmly not quite frowning but not smiling either despite the fact he wanted to after hearing such words from the blond "I do not have that necessity for the time being, neither do you and I hope you will never have to risk your life for anything or anyone else; not while I am by your side."_

"_But I will receive military training like the one Big Brother is receiving now, will I not? And so will you." Emerald eyes looked curiously into brown ones "What is the point in that if I will not be able to ever use my training?"_

"_You are taking them because there is always a chance you will have the necessity to defend yourself and because mother needs trustworthy leaders for our soldiers to protect the country from any danger." Conrart explained easily, he never did want to think on the day Wolfram would start battling against others though and even less in a war if it were ever to happen; he would rather keep the blond caged in the castle if a war ever started than commanding his own troops "But that does not mean you have to worry about that yet. You shall not start your training for a few years still and you most definitely should not be worrying about saving someone else's life yet either and until you have graduated."_

"_Even if it is you I wanted to save?" Gisela noticed Conrart's eyes soften in a way she had never seen before, she herself was very much touched by those words; Wolfram was sometimes bratty, she knew, and didn't tend to be polite with people who were not part of his family but there was no doubt he was the most adorable creature when it came to his brothers. Conrart's smile seemed to shine brighter than ever right then._

"_Even then, because saving your life is my job." Wolfram smiled back at his brother who pulled the blond closer to him by his shoulders with one arm in a half-hug being tender and playful at the same time and even while watching this Gisela didn't feel out of place but remained silent respecting the moment. A knock at the door broke the comfortable silence that had fallen upon them after the last declaration; the female was fast to answer it trying to leave the brothers as undisturbed as possible but the hug had already been broken by the time the maid handed her the couple of bowls the middle prince had requested._

_The young healer took the recipients thanking the woman and running up to the cage in which the bird was now perched upon the wood stick that went from one side of the cage to the other chirping calmly. Conrart took the bowls from the female Mazoku with a "Thank you" and moved as carefully as he could to get them into the bird's temporary home; the animal noticed the motions but made no attempt to move as if it had already started trusting these people enough to let them that close; a rare behavior coming from a bird but well-accepted._

"_We have to inform mother about this, it is very fortunate her brother is back at his castle for the week or he would surely reprimand us for this." The oldest person in the room said decided. The other two nodded in agreement and went to look for the Maou right away knowing she would have no complaints on their little companion staying with them for a couple of days._

* * *

><p><em>The next day Gisela found herself again inside the Bielefeld heir's room checking up on her small patient. The Maou had told them they could keep the animal for as long as needed until it fully recovered so they were not worried on hiding it from anyone; none of the guards would say anything to Stoffel since they all liked the man as much as they liked getting sick during their favorite holiday.<em>

"_It's looking much better than yesterday; tomorrow we can let it free." The rookie healer said happily. Conrart was also smiling at the small animal but the youngest demon there was staring thoughtfully at it._

"_Little Big Brother," Wolfram called looking up at the brunette who regarded him curiously "Is there any possibility we could train this bird to deliver messages?"_

"_I do not believe that is possible, Wolfram." The questioned boy answered honestly with a small apologetic smile upon seeing the disappointment in his brother's deep green eyes, he cocked his head to the side in an inquiring way "Why would you have liked to train it? What for exactly?"_

"_Well I just was hoping I could use it to send letters to my father since it has been too long since I last saw him." Gisela flinched a little at the hard expression that appeared on the young Weller's face._

_She remembered her father told her not to mention Wolfram's father at any cost. Since the blond was born the head of the Bielefeld family had shown great distaste for his own son for a reason unknown to her, unlike Lord Waltorana who was delighted with the newborn as if it had been his own. Lady Celli had insisted her third husband to give a chance to their child an so Lord von Bielefeld stayed in the castle for a few years until he disappeared one day without a word to go back to his own lands refusing to know any more about the still far too young blond demon. The divorce soon came and that was the last time Wolfram had heard of his father. Gwendal and especially Conrart held a strong grudge towards the noble only amplified whenever their baby brother mentioned his desire to see his progenitor once more. Only until then did she see the kind of reaction the mention of the fire-wielder's father generated from his half-brother._

"_I am sorry Wolfram, but this bird cannot be trained for that and I am sure Lord von Bielefeld must be busy so let us not bother him." The brown-eyed prince said trying to sound like he really meant his words and as if he was really sorry for denying something to the spoiled demon and not to let show how irked and furious he really was. The blond seemed to believe the tone that had been faked but Gisela didn't and she had to suppress a shudder from how cold she suddenly felt despite the summer weather._

"_I wish he would spend more time with me like your father does with you." Wolfram confessed sadly before turning to the other demon, she was surprised he acknowledged her at all since he hadn't glanced at her since she entered the room to check on the bird a few minutes ago "You also spend time with your father, Big Brother is not able to because his father is no longer alive but mine is alive and yet I don't see him anymore. I can barely remember how he looks like."_

"_Let him be, if he wants to see you he will come to you." Conrart put an arm around his sibling's shoulders and pulled the smaller body to his own much like he had done the day before but it was noticeable to the doctor-in-training that this embrace was not a love demonstration like last one; this showed the protective side of the brunette which could even be considered possessive judging by the hard expression the second son was wearing as if his brother's father was in front of him looking down to them and listening to every word, Gisela relaxed though when he heard the older male's voice soften as he continued talking "But in the meantime you have us, Gwendal and I, to be there for you and we will stay by your side for as many days as feathers has the bird in front of us."_

"_And how many feathers does it have?" The question was quite expected but it still made Conrart smile down at his brother who had freed himself from the embrace and was now looking up at him with an inquiring frown and a small pout; he still could pull them off and look way cuter than most Mazoku his age._

"_Enough." Was the simple answer, the pout grew as the blond folded his arms over his chest with a childish "hmpf"._

"_I want to count them then!" That earned him a chuckle from the Weller heir, the green-haired girl couldn't help but smile amused at that._

"_You cannot keep the bird here; it needs to be free." Wolfram sighed at that accepting defeat rather quickly as he often did when talking to either of his brothers._

"_I know but... Make your words a promise!" The small boy looked once again into brown eyes with determination written all over his face leaning a little to the front as to look more demanding "Promise that what you just said is true and on your honor you must never break this promise!"_

"_I promise I will always be true to my words." The seriousness the blond had used really touched Conrart, his smile going from amused to soft in just a second when he made the promise. The brunette then rested his hand on Wolfram's head gently mussing the soft locks "And when Gwendal comes back I will make him promise this as well."_

"_Good." The green-eyed male nodded satisfied moving away from Conrart's hand and trying to fix his hair to the way he had it before his brother's action "It is too bad Big Brother is not here at the moment, he would have liked this animal very much."_

"_Yes, he will be very jealous when he hears this." Conrart agreed with a nod "It is past noon, say Gisela would you like to join us for lunch? It shall only be the three of us since mother has to eat with the visiting nobles that arrived this morning. We can get some of those sweets Lord von Christ won't allow you to eat at home."_

"_With pleasure your Majesty." She answered with a bow of her head, she was glad she had mentioned she wasn't allowed to eat too many sweets back home because she was always served a good quantity of them in Blood Pledge Castle "Thank you."_

_**Ends Flashback**_

"The next day the bird was freed and three days later, when Gwendal-Kakka returned to the castle for the summer break, Conrart-Kakka made him promise their brother the same thing he had promised after they had told him about the little adventure with the small animal." Gisela finished her story with a happy smile looking at her king.

"Now I get why you said 'special' before." Yuuri nodded with a smile of his own "It's a promise started by Conrad to Wolfram in which they added Gwendal."

"Exactly, Heika." The double-black brought a hand to his chin in thought with a small frown.

"I still can't believe Wolfram's father could leave him just like that. The only thing he left to his son before he ran away was his hate for humans and his apathetic attitude towards other people's problems." He said very disappointed on the man, maybe it wasn't polite to speak that way of a man who was now dead thanks to a sword wound during an attack to the Bielefeld lands quite a few years back but the man had done nothing to earn his respect in his opinion "I'm glad Wolf's back to good terms with Conrad though; he never did break his promise to Wolfram despite the way he was treated for being a half-breed… And the few slips here and there."

"Before going to Earth Lord Weller was such a distant person caused by his father's death and the way he was treated by most pure Mazoku nobility in the country as he grew up." The healer said sadly before smiling again "But when he came back he was a totally different person and it has only gotten better since your Majesty finally arrived to this world."

"Thanks, Gisela." Yuuri thanked her rubbing the back of his head blushing at the compliment.

"Yuuri!" Turning around the after-mentioned teenager saw Greta running down the steps that led from the hallway to the garden, he spread his arms to receive his daughter in his embrace. Due to the force of the impact he almost feel backwards and on the precious flowers but managed to keep his balance long enough to stay on his kneeling position as the human child pulled away to look at his face.

"Hi Greta," The monarch greeted with a smile "What are you doing here?"

"Wolfram and Conrart are done with their work and told me to fetch you while they got the horses ready but you were not in your office so I came to the garden to look for Gisela first like Wolfram asked me to and was a surprise to find you here as well." Greta let out in one breath before turning to Gisela "Wolfram said a soldier got a small burn in his hand during training so he would like you to take a look at the wound please. The rest are tired but fine."

"Will do princess, thank you for letting me know. I assume he has been sent to my medical wing." The adopted princess nodded vigorously as reply "Very well then, I shall retire now. Have a nice day Yuuri-Heika, Greta-Hime."

"Likewise, Gisela." The green-haired demon gave a small bow and walked off towards her office and medical wing. Yuuri stood with Greta ready to make his way to the front gates of the castle to meet with the two ex-princes only to be stopped by the human kid tugging at his hand and pointing at the sky animatedly.

"Look Yuuri!" She exclaimed "There's a bird there."

Yuuri looked up and saw a small brown bird flying towards the flowers that stood behind them, they followed the animal with their gaze until it got lost in the colorful flora.

"Did you know that's Conrart's favorite animal?" Yuuri let out a chuckle at that.

"I might have been able to guess."

…_**.**_

TBC~


	4. Lost and Found

**Fanfiction title: **The little moments.

**Fanfiction summary: **One-shot series in which Yuuri gets to hear from people in the castle stories about the former Maou's three sons and the moments they remember the most from their early years.

**Chapter title: **Lost and Found.

**Featured brothers: **Gwendal and Conrad.

**Story teller: **Lady Celli, originally Gwendal.

**Chapter number: **4/11

**Authoress: **BlackArcticFox

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Kyou Kara Maou! Or any of the characters in this story.

…**..**

**Chapter 4: **_Lost and found_

"Why do I have to do this now? The party isn't for another month!" Yuuri complained trying on the new suit that had been brought to his room for Greta's birthday party in a month. It had golden lining and buttons giving the usually plain black clothing a quite eye-catching and elegant look. Günter clasped his hands together in delight at the sight while Lady Celli grinned pleased.

"It is necessary to make sure the suit is ready as soon as possible, we will have our hands full with the other preparations in order of making this event most memorable." The lilac-haired Mazoku exclaimed gleefully "Wolfram and the others already tried their garments on and they all fit perfectly.

"Yeah, yeah; I know." The king sighed defeated "Well I think my own suit fits me well enough."

"Oh Heika! I undoubtedly agree!" Günter exclaimed, a little too loudly for Yuuri's taste "You look so dazzlingly-argh!"

"Günter?" The Maou asked a little worried upon the sudden stop –not that he wasn't grateful- but, upon turning from the mirror to look at his advisor, he noticed there was no real reason to worry; the demon had suffered yet another nosebleed. Said demon brought a hand to his nose trying to cover the red liquid from view and rushed to the door yelling something about fetching the new cape for the suit. He ran out the door almost crashing into Gwendal, who seemed as if he was about to knock the door, and dashed down the hall mumbling incoherent things under his breath.

"I am not even going to ask." Gwendal said to himself with a shake of his head deciding to forget about the eccentric Christ and focus on the people inside the bed-chambers "Your Majesty, Mother."

"Gwendal!" The blond woman stood from her place at the bed to have a better look at her first son, her smile bright and lovingly as always "Come in, what is it that you need?"

The addressed man only gave a couple of steps into the room, his face stern as usual but Yuuri was sure there was another wrinkle on Gwendal's forehead considering the number he saw there earlier during breakfast. However he was wise enough to not make a comment on it.

"Has either of you seen Conrart?" The blue-eyed man asked, the double-black cocked his head to the side curious at the question but it was Lady Celli who spoke first.

"Do you need him for anything?"

"He was supposed to report to me after he finished the training of his troops but he has not set a foot in my office all day and his training finished over an hour ago." Gwendal explained still in monotone not betraying any feeling he might be experiencing at the moment.

"Um…" The attention was drawn to the youngest individual in the room who glanced nervously at the one who practically ran the country for him wondering what reaction the information he was going to share would create "Yozak asked him to go with him to get some things Anissina requested in exchange of not being her test subject for her latest invention which requires only physical strength and no Maryoku."

Gwendal's eye twitched at the mention of the red-haired inventor remembering how he was barely able to escape last time, handing Günter over to her at the same time. He later found out the wind-wielder was found unconscious in the laboratory by Gisela who got notice of that thanks to their young monarch. Regardless of his wandering thoughts he was able to hear the whole answer given to him and nodded stiffly.

"Very well, I shall await his return." The commander turned on his heel and walked out of the room with a mumbled farewell to his mother and the Maou. As soon as the door was closed the 26th Maou let out an amused giggle, Yuuri looked at her questioningly not really knowing what was it that made the woman laugh.

"I was wondering when he would realize Conrart was missing from the Castle." The half-breed was even more confused by her words. As far as he remembered there had never been a problem with his godfather leaving the castle before; the problem was when Wolfram left the castle, for various reasons, but Conrad seemed to be able to go and come as he pleased "Conrart is still a soldier and Gwendal's younger brother, you know Heika?"

"Huh?" Was Yuuri's intelligent reply, it was until then he realized he had been staring at the closed door with an inquiring expression since his predecessor had declared out loud about her wondering. He blushed and decided to rephrase "What do you mean, Celli-Sama?"

"Gwendal gives much freedom to Conrart, true; he is the one person Gwendal trusts the most in the world." The King noticed the woman's voice took the soft tone she only used when talking about her 'children' –as she still saw them as such most of the time- and family memories "But that does not change the fact that Conrart is a soldier under his brother's command and that he is still Gwendal's younger brother making him naturally worried creating more wrinkles on my firstborn's handsome face."

"Yeah I understand he worries but he has never asked me about Conrad's whereabouts before so it was weird for me to listen to him asking me that now." The female smiled amused at him.

"That is because this is the first time since you arrived to Shin Makoku that Conrart has gone out of the castle without informing Gwendal where he was going, and when he needs to leave and can't inform Gwendal personally he usually has someone do it for him." Lady Celli replied easily before frowning slightly, the gesture looked almost foreign on her beautiful face "Except for a couple of times in which it was impossible to let the information get to Gwendal for various reasons I would rather not talk about but I bet those moments, like this one, brought back some memories; the same ones I was thinking on before he came into the room."

"Memories?" Yuuri asked interested. He had noticed the woman had been way too quiet since she had brought him to the room to try on the suit the seamstress sent for him, the woman had asked Günter to take care of making sure the clothes fit the double-black while she finished a few details on his cape and fitted Murata's garments "What kind of memories?"

"Well your Majesty, I am sure you are aware that my Conrart has never been one to stay always in one place if he is given the chance to move freely; even more so in lands he does not know very well, if at all." The teenager nodded; nowadays, even when the brunette's face looked always placid, Yuuri could make out the distinctive glint in the brown eyes whenever he proposed to explore a new place they went to; the silver specks in those eyes shone even brighter at the prospect "It was no different the first time he went to Voltaire lands when he was thirty-two. Gwendal was just reaching his sixty-one but he had to start to learn to run his own land already since my poor first husband was sick and we knew he would pass away soon; I went with them of course, more for my own will than my brother's, but was not able to keep an eye on my first two sons as much as I would have liked having Wolfie with me at his eighteen years of living so it was only to be expected…"

_**Flashback**_

"_When are we going to see the town?" A young Conrart asked impatiently making Gwendal sigh already irritated with the question, it didn't matter that the brunette was pretty mature for his age he still acted as a seven-year-old human when it came to explore new lands. He knew he should be more understanding of his brother but all the responsibility of his lands were being pushed down on him already as he was just about to enter Mazoku puberty, no matter if he looked halfway through it._

"_After I am done with my work, Conrart." Conrart frowned from his position on a chair across from his brother, only a desk with many books and sheets of paper was standing between them. The middle prince knew he was acting like a brat asking so many times the same question to his already annoyed brother but he got bored easily and was very eager to see the grounds his Big Brother would one day have power over._

"_How long will your work take?"_

"_An hour or less hopefully, I hope Wolfram will be awake from his nap by then so Mother and him will be able to come along." The elder prince knew how much his mother loved the town but none of them would dare to leave the precious blond prince behind and out of their sights being so fragile and innocent much like a human who hadn't reached their four years old. Maybe if Günter had been visiting him they would __**consider **__it but not with only guards and such around. It simply wasn't safe enough._

"_And what can I do while I wait?" The half-breed asked sounding like a scolded child who had just been caught trying to reach the jar of cookies "There is no-one my age here, Wolfram and Mother are asleep, you are busy and I do not plan on spending my time with Mother's brother or Raven."_

"_You should get some rest yourself; the journey was a long one for you and you woke up early today so we could be here before lunch." Gwendal knew that it wasn't really so much of a "long journey" for his sibling considering the after-mentioned male's father had already started taking Conrart to visit human lands near the borders of the country, though more often than not the human left all alone without as much as a goodbye to his own son._

"_I do not want to sleep yet, there has to be something else to do." The grey-haired Mazoku thought for a second, he was about to suggest reading but his brown-eyed companion was too hyperactive at the moment for that and he had to think on something else before his office became his brother's playground._

"_How about… you explore the castle?" He finally proposed with a light shrug "This is the first time you have been here since every time I had to come before I did it alone."_

"_Can I? Really?" Conrart had jumped off the chair and was now leaning over the desk, his sudden movement almost making the quill and ink fall over, Gwendal had to suppress a sigh at Conrart's energy knowing it would only be a matter of time before Wolfram followed the brunette's example and asked to go just about everywhere even in the most inconvenient moments. But at least then Conrart would be the one to entertain the blond most of the time and not him._

"_Sure, be sure to get back here in forty-five minutes so we can go together for Mother and Wolfram; she would never forgive us if we don't take her to town with us." The von Voltaire heir instructed not moving his eyes off of the document he was currently reading._

"_Thank you, Gwendal!" The half-breed exclaimed with a wide smile rushing out of the room and slamming the door shut after him without meaning to. Gwendal finally let out the sigh he had been repressing feeling relieved for the peace he was feeling at now; it wasn't that he disliked to have his little brother with him but, at his age, the brunette could be quite a handful. The only times in which he was being calmer was when taking care of Wolfram and Conrart ended up so tired he sometimes slept in his day clothes; more than once his mother had to change her second son's clothes and tuck him in bed after he had to look after the blond when both, the Maou and her firstborn, were busy._

_Gwendal himself tried to help his half-brother when he had spare time but when he helped he ended up looking after both younger males and, more times than he would dare to count, he would find himself asleep in either Conrart's or Wolfram's bedroom at the end of the day depending on who he got in bed last that day._

_Anyway, there was no point getting distracted then; he had paperwork to finish and he wanted to have it done before the hour was through or he'd have not only Conrart but also his blond relatives on his case until he took them out._

* * *

><p><em>Gwendal exhaled the moment he finally signed the last paper on his desk; his work was done and five minutes before the hour- Wait, five minutes? Then that meant he had been working for fifty-five minutes, he was supposed to be accompanied by now.<em>

"_Where is Conrart?" The grey-haired demon wondered aloud, Conrart rarely disobeyed when he was told to do something, which was one of the reasons he was mildly accepted by the nobles who were able to ignore his human half for the most part and even more so he always heard to what the oldest prince said so him doing this was something unheard of._

_Trying to not start thinking on anything yet he decided to wait for a few more minutes. He stood up and walked over the window looking down at the maids taking care of the roses in the garden. After a few moments of staying there he went back to his desk and sat once again on the chair he had been using for the last hour and glanced at the clock once more. It was possible the brunette was late because he had gotten too entertained with the exploring he was doing._

_Gwendal folded his arms and rested them on his desk lowering his head against them, he could give his head a rest as he waited; reading so many official papers was tiring. He would be able to rest like that until his younger half-brother came to get him so they could go to town. Maybe Conrart had gone to get his mother and sibling already and all three of them would barge into his office whining that it was time to leave already; depending on their level of impatience they might as well be coming in with the news that they had already asked for the horses and the carriage to be prepared for their leave and Gwendal would have no other choice but to go with them right away. Now Conrart being ten minutes late didn't seem as such a bad happening, his body needed a break before going out and be surrounded by the villagers greeting "The beautiful Maou and her precious princes", most of the people in town hand only been able to meet in person to their Queen and the Voltaire heir but word on his younger brothers had reached his lands in no time and he had heard from the guards and maids they were all wanting to meet the second and third prince. No-one really seemed to mind that Conrart had human blood, at least so far, and he hoped it would stay that way._

_Blue eyes snapped open when the owner realized he had dozed off. Raising his head slowly as to prevent dizziness he glanced at the clock on the wall; it was almost twenty minutes past the hour and there was still no sign of Conrart. All right; now he could start thinking something happened. Standing up and almost trotting to the door he opened it to look down both sides of the hallway looking for a certain brown head, he hadn't noticed the guards outside the door until he was addressed to by them._

"_Good afternoon, your majesty." Gwendal looked up at the older men and nodded in acknowledgement before proceeding to speak up._

"_Has any member of my family entered my office since I was last left alone?" He could have asked only about the brown-eyed boy but he didn't want to show worry over anyone in front of his subjects, it was bad enough having them knowing he had to ask if someone entered the place only him was in. The questioned men shook their heads, one of them decide to add a verbal answer._

"_Since his Majesty's brother left the office no-one has walked down this hallway."_

"_I see, thank you." Where to look? Maybe he could start with his mother's bedroom; it was a good guess and he had no more ideas, besides he would be able to take a look to the garden on his way there; Conrart did like open spaces after all._

_Giving long strides he reached the garden and looked for his sibling with only his gaze from his spot at the hallway finding no-one else there besides the same two maids he had seen from his window a little over twenty minutes ago, they were most certainly done since they were picking up their gardening tools._

"_Ah, good afternoon your Majesty." One of the women called with a bow, her companion followed suit after noticing the son of their lord gazing at the garden as if looking for something "Is everything all right?"_

"_Has my mother or brothers been here today?" He asked trying still to not give away any emotion he might be feeling to his subordinates. However he couldn't hide as well the disappointment when both maids shook their heads in denial._

"_No member of the royal family has been in the garden today, young prince." Gwendal nodded once as thanks and proceeded to continue his way towards his mother's bedchambers. When he got there he saw the Maou walking out of the room with her youngest son in arms, but there was no sign of the brunette he had been looking for anywhere._

_The blue-eyed prince decided then and there that it would be better to go away: If Conrart wasn't with them then the Queen would surely ask her firstborn the whereabouts of the middle prince of whom Gwendal was supposed to be taking care of while she took a nap with the youngest member of the royal family. Now, how could he ever tell his mother he had let his little brother roam free throughout the castle without company when it was his responsibility of taking care of the half-breed? Better run now and-_

"_Oh, Gwendal!" Darn it all! "Gwen, honey!"_

"_Good afternoon, Mother." The grey-haired Mazoku turned around trying to look as stoic as always as to not be caught in his nervousness "Did you have a nice rest?"_

"_We certainly did, thank you." The blond woman said smiling "We are still going to town, right? Were you here to fetch us?"_

"_Erm… Yes, yes; we are still going." Gwendal started to look for something in his mind to distract his mother, there had to be something _'Please Shinou, something! Anything!'

"_Do you think you and Conrart could wait for a little longer?"_

"_Eh?" He was sure there were a million answers that sounded less stupid than that one but his mouth hadn't been given time for his brain to think up any of those so he settled for that as his mother turned Wolfram to him still in her harms._

"_Wolfie had a snack and got all dirty; I have to give him a bath before going out." The young blond pouted but stayed silent, Gwendal could see clearly cream and honey all over his baby brother's face and clothes and couldn't agree more with the Maou in her decision but he also had to remember to thank the cute Mazoku later greatly for giving him more time even if it hadn't been with his knowledge "You do not mind waiting, do you? You would never go out without me, right?"_

"_O-of course not, Mother!" Gwendal replied still feeling more relieved than ever before in his life "We shall wait patiently in… my room since I need to change my clothes for more proper ones to go out to town, take all the time you need!"_

"_Oh thank you, dear. It shall not take long!" With that the blond woman raced to the closest bathroom trying to be done with the bath as soon as possible. The first son wasted no time in turning to the guards stationed outside the room the Queen had been using mere minutes ago._

"_Has any of you seen Conrart around?" Both guards shook their heads at the same time letting out in unison a 'No, you Majesty.'_

_The grey-haired demon grunted and told them should they see the middle prince he was to report to the young Voltaire's bedchambers before turning on his heel and making his way to the kitchen in long strides. The cooks hadn't seen the prince either, he received the same answer from the maids in the dining room and main hall, from the guards in the stables, from the guards in the training grounds, from his father's advisor in the library, from the healer in the infirmary –Thank Shinou!- and from every other single person in the castle! It was insane! Conrart couldn't just disappear in thin air!_

"_Has Conrart entered this room at all today?" He wasn't surprised when he received a negative answer form the guards stationed outside the room Conrart would be using during their stay "If you see him please tell him to meet me in my bedchambers."_

_Gwendal was officially exhausted by the time he reached his bedchambers; he had actually run all around the castle looking for the brunette and he had had no luck finding him; not a clue. It wouldn't be long until his mother came to his room and then he would have to explain to her how he could lose his little brother in his own castle and then he would lose his mother's trust and probably would never leave Wolfram under his care again, let alone Conrart's if- WHEN he was found. There was nothing he could do now but pray the brunette was safe; it had all been his fault and if anything had happened to the half-breed he would never be able to forgive himself, what kind of big brother was he? He surely deserved any punishment he was sure to receive later._

"_Gwendal?" A couple of eyes snapped open, his body turned from the door to the bed where he saw what he could have sworn was an hallucination caused by desperation "Is it time to go already?"_

"_But… But…" He was shocked, perhaps it would have been less surprising if he had asked the guards outside his room the same question he had asked over thirty people over the last few minutes but how was he to know "Conrart?"_

"_I apologize for falling asleep in your bedchambers; it was one of the first rooms I came upon and wanted to see if your bed was softer than the one back home but I was not aware of how tired I actually was and so I was not able to stay awake. Sorry." The Weller child smiled sheepishly rubbing his arm. Gwendal looked intently at the younger male before stalking up to him confusing the younger male sitting on the bed "Gwen-"_

"_Do not-" The Voltaire heir interrupted lightly bonking the brown-eyed boy's head which barely hurt the half-breed "-Ever do that to me again."_

"_What…" A stern glare was everything that was needed to keep the younger male from asking what his older brother meant, but the slight quiver of the blue irises looking back at him explained to him that whatever he did had hurt Gwendal "I promise I shall not do it again."_

_**Ends Flashback**_

"I had to explain this whole thing to Conrart myself the next day right after Gwendal told me the full story." Celli said with a chuckle "My poor son felt awful for making his brother worry so much."

"I thought Gwendal didn't want you to know about him losing Conrad." Yuuri said confused from his place sitting on his bed next to his predecessor, she nodded still smiling.

"He did not have much choice since every guard and maid I found on my way to Gwendal's bedroom after Wolfram's bath asked me if I had seen my second son because their Lord was looking for him." The blond woman explained amused "I asked Gwendal about it and that was the first time I ever heard him ramble; he let out all the frustration he had felt on his words and on four new blankies for Wolfram."

"And to this day he still fears Conrad will get really lost?" The double-black could barely believe a man of over a hundred years still feared his little brother, who was just about a few years from reaching his first century, would suddenly disappear.

"Well it is not like he wants to have Conrart in front of him the whole time but he does want to know where he'll be at so, if anything were to happen, he knows where to look and send help." The demon explained "But yes; he is sometimes still afraid someday he might not find his brother. But Conrart growing up has made him worry less about him and focus on Wolfram who has taken a liking to leave the castle without notice, usually for following you, Heika."

"Don't blame me!" Yuuri raised his hands in defense but relaxed after he heard his companion giggle.

"I should thank you." The monarch cocked his head to the side not understanding the declaration "Since Conrart started looking after you and Wolfram in your adventures Gwendal's trust on him has grown incredibly. I thought this trust had a very specific limit which had been reached after the war of a little over twenty years ago was over but my mind has been changed thanks to you."

"Aw I really did nothing." The current Maou replied blushing and rubbing the back of his head nervously. It was really something he hadn't planned or noticed and it technically was more something to be reprimanded on since most of his adventures led to troubles for his companions but who was he to refuse a compliment?

The attention of the two people in the royal bedchambers was brought to the window upon hearing voices from outside. Looking out the window to the garden they saw a very stern-looking Gwendal standing in front of a sheepish-looking Conrart and Yozak. Yuuri smiled in amusement at the scene while Celli looked tenderly at it as though she was looking at a group of children after one had been hit by accident with a flying sword the other two had used for a practice.

"Well I believe that this problem is solved." Celli said at last opening the window to let some fresh air in the room, Yozak averted the movement and looked up smiling.

"Yo, Young Master!" Gwendal's and Conrad's faces turned to look up at the teenager upon hearing the call "We have a question for you!"

"Hey guys!" Yuuri called back with a curious look "What is it?"

"Have you seen his Excellency Wolfram today?" The half-breed thought about it for a moment before answering not really needing much time to think on it.

"Not since he left the table after lunch, why?" Yozak smiled playfully at him before following the two soldiers who were by now a few feet away from their previous position without answering the king's question heading towards the west wing where the soldiers stayed at. He heard the 26th Maou sigh loudly still wearing a small smile.

"Oh my I think they forgot."

"What did- Oh… Heheh, darn." Yuuri also smiled amused after realizing what the woman was talking about, apparently Conrad's slip-up had messed his and Gwendal's head a little and had forgotten something important. He was sure Yozak did remember that and was now only playing along following the other two males who were obviously going to look for Wolfram's personal guards, however they would not find them there and they would not find the blond fire-wielder either for a few hours "Wolfram is on patrol today."

* * *

><p>TBC~<p> 


	5. A small lesson

**Fanfiction title: **The little moments.

**Fanfiction summary: **One-shot series in which Yuuri gets to hear from people in the castle stories about the former Maou's three sons and the moments they remember the most from their early years.

**Chapter title: **A small lesson.

**Featured brothers: **Gwendal and Wolfram.

**Story teller: **Murata, originally Shinou –that who sees all-.

**Chapter number: **5/11

**Authoress: **BlackArcticFox

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Kyou Kara Maou! Or any of the characters in this story.

**…..**

**Chapter 5: **_A small lesson._

"Ah, finally!" Yuuri exhaled stretching his arms over his head trying to relieve the stiff feeling of his back after he and Murata were finally freed from their classes on how the human lands invited to the upcoming party were expecting to be greeted by the King and the Sage. Murata had been forced to practice as well because most of the human invited to Greta's birthday party were fairly new and he hadn't had the opportunity to learn from them in any of his reincarnations, thus the necessity of learning all the greeting with his fellow terrestrial instead of the usual classes Yuuri was supposed to take that day "I don't know how Günter could force us to do this much in one day."

"On the bright side, you don't have to sign any documents again until we've learned all the greetings perfectly along with the names of each guest." The bespectacled boy said trying to find something good in the situation even though he was feeling pretty drained himself.

"True but Gwendal is not happy about that." The Monarch commented chuckling, hoping the commander wouldn't go too hard on him once he was able to return to the paperwork and that was something he was not looking forward to.

"It was not your decision anyway, Lord von Christ insisted on it and since both, Lord Weller and Lord von Bielefeld sided with him neither you nor Lord von Voltaire –or even I- had a say in it." Murata said with a light shrug still keeping his grin in place "I could have sworn I felt the ground shaking for a second when the idea was brought up."

"So it wasn't only me?" Yuuri asked surprised but feeling somewhat relieved it hadn't been his imagination "For a second there I thought I was just feeling too nervous or something."

"Nope, the Majutsu was definitely there." The Daikenja assured with a nod "Someone as powerful as him can let his magic out without the need to move and, since Earth is a pretty stable element, he doesn't have to worry much about it getting out of control unlike a certain fire-wielder we know."

"Despite everything Wolfram has a pretty good control over his element." The Maou said thoughtfully remembering the ex-prince was able to easily create from dancing fireballs to four fierce fire lions at once, roars and all "In a few years he might just be as good as Gwendal maybe even better."

"Ah the student surpassing the teacher, I can't wait to see the day." A curious look was the reply he received to which he only smirked before feigning ignorance "Something wrong, Shibuya?"

"What do you mean with that student-teacher thing?" Yuuri asked hoping his friend would give him a concrete answer for once; if that was the case he could let the smirk pass.

"How do you think Lord von Bielefeld learned to use his Maryoku in so many different ways?"

"Eh… Ulrike?" The Demon King couldn't help but blush ashamed when the other male chuckled at that.

"You seriously know nothing about your fiancé's powers?" Yuuri felt even more embarrassed than before as he shook his head answering the question. He had seen Wolfram's powers countless times and the sight both; scared and mesmerized him at the same time but since the blond had full control over the fire by the time Yuuri had first arrived to this world – even if he did have still a bit of bad aim- he never wondered how he learned to use his Maryoku.

"Until recently I had always wondered why he has a chant and his brother doesn't but the always answers "safety" so I don't really know much other than the chant is to have better control over the fire." And even that little detail he learned it thanks to Gisela the other day by the flowers and not from Wolfram himself. The control over the most unstable element was important, Yuuri knew, but he couldn't say he had much experience since he had only used fire once to create letters over that garbage monster he created to deal with the pirates that one time and even then he had been in Maou mode. Nowadays he was still not willing to experiment much with any element other than water.

"I can't believe you never asked him how he learned to create so many different attacks." Ken commented amused with a shake of his head before stopping on the spot and motioning with his head towards the floor below the hallway they were standing on at the moment. Looking over the railing Yuuri noticed they were by the training grounds where the blond ex-prince was currently training the most recent additions to the army on their Majutsu usage; he was giving a small show to the twenty soldiers throwing various fireballs at the straw targets located near the castle's surrounding wall. The Maou was surprised to find himself there since he was really just wandering around trying to go anywhere but his office, otherwise Gwendal might just want to take his chances and make him start signing as many papers as he could before dinner "He's already Lieutenant and is in charge of Majutsu training of the new soldiers and of his own troops."

"I know, I know." Suddenly he realized something "Hey! How would _you _know about his powers and how he learned to control them?"

"I have my ways Shibuya." The king pouted and grumped for the lack of answer.

"Oh yeah? Well if you really know that much why don't you tell me all about that?"

"It will be my pleasure." Yuuri scowled at the still evident self-confidence but said nothing "As the royal family back then, they had a personal instructor for the cute child but it would be obvious our spoiled prince was too much to handle and said personal instructor was sure to get tired. However he gave up after just three classes claiming the young blond needed far more than a simple instructor. This quit, along with the ones from every previous instructor and Lord von Bielefeld's behavior, caused some troubles…"

_**Flashback**_

"_You must do something about your youngest son." Stoffel said to the twenty-sixth Maou who was sitting in her throne with her blonde offspring on her lap; the woman was wearing an apologetic smile while the prince pouted at the blue-eyed man highly annoyed with such an attitude. The other two princes were standing near a window in the throne room trying not to laugh at the state the older Spitzberg's clothes were in; the cape was half-burnt as were the pants legs and right sleeve of the once elegant suit "How dare he do this? When the contract was made with his element you promised you would get him a proper instructor but in these thirteen years we have lost forty-eight instructors, how can you explain that? And the fact that Wolfram has attacked Raven and I with his powers countless times?"_

"_I apologize, brother." Cecile said actually sorry but slightly amused "Wolfie is a little difficult still but he will behave better as he grows up, right Wolfie?"_

"_I do behave, mother." The questioned fire-wielder replied crossing his arms over his chest "It is not my fault the instructors are unable to keep up with me."_

"_They are not supposed to keep up with you! You are only thirty-three!" The exasperation in the man's voice almost had the first and second princes laughing out loud, even more so when Wolfram stuck his tongue out to the regent whose face was deep red now._

"_I already have enough control over my element to start it and throw it, I believe I am fully capable of training myself from now onwards."_

"_I demand you find him a new instructor today!" Stoffel yelled at his sister ignoring the young Bielefeld. The Queen's eyes widened at that and her two older sons had lost any trace of a smile they might have previously have "If you don't I will have Ulrike breaking the contract!"_

"_But Brother, I need more time." Celli said sounding worried "It is impossible to find an instructor in a day."_

"_I do not care, use whatever resources you need but I want Wolfram starting a new training before dinner tonight." With that said the elder of the room turned on his heel and stomped out of there leaving behind an unpleasantly shocked royal family._

"_What will I do now?" Lady Cecile asked to no-one, the two males standing by the window neared the woman, Wolfram shifted on her lap so he could look at her face better "It is already hard to find an instructor as is, there is no way I can find one in less than a day let alone a good one."_

"_You know a lot of people Mother; would any of them be of help?" Gwendal asked trying to think on a name himself, Conrart spoke up then also trying to remember is there was any noble that could help._

"_You could ask them to only be a temporary instructor, we can find a proper one soon and they could leave then." The Maou shook her head._

"_I cannot think on anyone who would accept with such a short notice."_

"_Mother," The youngest prince called, guilt written all over his face "Are we in trouble because of me?"_

"_No honey, you were just speaking your mind." The monarch assured petting her son on the head "I would help you train myself if I could but I am so busy…"_

_Conrart lowered his head when his mother drifted off, there was no way they could find someone that same day to teach his baby brother to control his powers and his mother had too many responsibilities to spend time training with the prince. He would have liked to help but he didn't have Maryoku… but…_

"_You could do it, Gwendal." Blue locked with brown._

"_What are you talking about Conrart?"Gwendal asked shocked, the blond members of the royal family looking just as surprised. The brunette just smiled confidently._

"_You could be Wolfram's trainer until we find a new instructor. That way Stoffel will not be able to complain and Wolfram can learn a few new tricks."_

"_I am an Earth wielder and I myself am still training." The grey-haired demon tried to excuse himself "I am not what Wolfram needs; it would end up in a disaster."_

"_It is not a bad idea." The mother said to her firstborn who turned to look surprised at her now while the middle child smiled even more "I know you are only seventy-six years old but you are very skilled with your powers already. Besides, you will be leaving for the Military Academy soon and you won't be able to see your family as much."_

"_But fire and earth are nothing alike, Mother." Gwendal argued back trying to remain stoic but unable to stay as composed as he wanted. Celli smiled at him._

"_Neither are wind and earth and yet Günter has taught you a couple of things when you leave for Voltaire and he visits you, has he not?"_

"_Well that is true but-"_

"_Please Big Brother?" Wide green eyes, putting pink lips, begging hands folded under the childish face… No! Cute or not he was __**not**__ going to train the blond no matter how absolutely adorable he looked "Please? I want to learn from you."_

"… _Very well."_

"_Oh thank you so much, Gwen!" The Maou exclaimed throwing her arms around the blue-eyed demon and pulling him to her bosom almost trapping Wolfram in between had it not been for Conrart pulling his baby brother off their mother's lap and towards himself just in time "Thank you so very much dear, I swear I will make it up to you!"_

"_Mother, please let go!" Gwendal requested struggling to break free from the Queen's embrace, had his mother been standing at that moment they would be the same height but the woman was still unbelievably strong. He just hoped his growth sprout would be worth it when it arrived, shouldn't be long now "You do not need to make it up to me."_

"_Aw honey, you really do act like a prince." The green-eyed woman smiled very softly to her older son "But I wish to do it, no need to worry."_

"_Big Brother, when do we start?" Gwendal's slight annoyance disappeared after looking at the human version of a sand-bear –cute but fiery- who was looking eagerly back at him. The expression almost made the earth wielder wonder how he could consider saying no to him. Almost._

"_If you feel ready we can start right away."_

_**Pause Flashback**_

"Wait a minute!"

"What is it Shibuya?"

"Really, who told you all of this? It doesn't seem as if it was any of the members of the royal family."

"Do you want to know who told me or would you rather finish listening to the story?"

"Fine, fine; continue."

"Thank you. Well Lord von Voltaire took Lord von Bielefeld to the training grounds, Lord Weller following just to make sure no-one would come back in hurt or annoyed; he stayed in the sidelines as to not bother his brothers..."

_**Back to a Flashback**_

"_Let us see Wolfram, what would you like to learn?" Gwendal asked standing next to his baby brother who frowned thinking on something he would like to do. His face brightened suddenly._

"_I want to direct my powers to various targets at the same time." Wolfram said convinced "like when you raise many earth pillars at the same time."_

"_All right, that should be easy." The first prince said with a nod, it was one of the first tricks he himself had learned "We shall try with a fireball first, dividing it once created, instead of throwing various from your hand at once."_

"_Sure!" The blond closed his eyes and took a deep breath before starting his chant. Despite the quantity of instructors being too high due to the fact they didn't last long the young blond had been able to learn quite well the basics of using his powers: Generating it, giving it simple tridimensional forms and of various sizes –the biggest flame he had been able to create so far was almost three times taller than him-, throwing it to still targets, follow and hit moving targets with almost perfect accuracy and create multiple subsequent attacks. It was quite outstanding for someone that young and without a constant trainer, the green-eyed prince was a very fast learner._

"_Very good, make it as big as your hand; it should suffice." Gwendal instructed, Wolfram's small-sized fireball grew a bit covering his whole palm and the elder brother took that as his cue to continue "Now focus on two spots on the wall, keep always in mind where exactly you want the attack to hit."_

"_I have my targets." The trainee said after a few seconds of staring intently at the wall in front of them._

"_Now, carefully, divide your powers into two. Do not rush it." The emeralds hid behind pale eyelids once again as the fire wielder concentrated on the new task. Both elder princes stared as the fireball started to divide into two, slowly but happening; until there were two perfectly symmetric –or as symmetric as fire could be- balls floating over the blonde's hand "Excellent, open your eyes and find your targets again."_

_Wolfram opened his eyes and found the spots he had picked as targets easily. Without waiting for more instructions he shot his fireballs; one of them hitting perfectly, the other one didn't reach the wall and instead fell on the ground leaving a small black spot on the dirt. The blond looked up apologetically to the blue-eyed prince waiting for a scolding as it always happened with each and every instructor he have had for being impatient._

_Gwendal looked back down at his baby sibling with his stern gaze. He knew very well what Wolfram had just done was one of the reasons for many instructors to quit and he possibly deserved an attention call but… he couldn't bring himself to do it; they were doing this to help their mother and if either, Wolfram or Gwendal, gave up on it they would only bring trouble. The Voltaire heir closed his eyes with a sigh and counted to ten before locking gazes with his brother who was now looking confused at him rather than anxious. He looked pretty cute… But that had nothing to do with his decision of not scolding the younger male; it was all for their mother._

"_And __**that**__ is how you should not do it." The queen's firstborn said evenly. A smile appeared on the relieved Bielefeld who nodded once understanding "Now let's do it all over again until the moment it failed."_

_Another nod was the only reply he received, the blond was very much comforted by the calm reaction his brother had shown unlike his previous instructors so he made no attempt to give a verbal retort. Wolfram focused again on his powers and the targets forming two fireballs over his hand. He looked back up to his temporary trainer once he felt he was ready to continue._

"_Now keep in mind you have to keep your power always divided and it means that you will get tired faster but it will be worth it if you hit your targets with enough strength and accuracy." Gwendal explained glad that his baby brother was listening to him. He watched as Wolfram's face changed from a focused calm expression to a determined frown before the two small fireballs moved towards the wall with the same speed, this time both reaching it without a problem._

"_I did it!" The youngest member of the royal family exclaimed raining his arms in the air and smiling widely. Gwendal's smile at the improvement and the celebration was barely visible but, when he turned to steal a glance to Conrart, he noticed the brunette's smile was big and full of pride for his younger brother "Big Brother, I did it!"_

"_Yes, you did very well Wolfram." The Voltaire heir agreed looking down into gleaming green eyes "Now, how about we try focusing on targets at opposite directions?"_

"_All right." The blond wasted no time in turning his body ninety degrees to his right so now he was completely facing the Maou's first child and forming two fireballs over his open palm quickly finding his targets –one on the exact point between both his first targets and the other a few feet away from his Little Big Brother as to not hurt him in case he missed._

"_Remember to divide your power to give both shots the same energy." Gwendal reminded when he noticed his small relative hadn't thrown the fireballs right away like the first time possibly waiting for him to say it was fine to let them go. Wolfram took a deep breath and let the projectiles go with enough force that he himself wouldn't be able to stop them even if needed._

"_Gah!" Which was the case here "Raven! Raven! Help me!"_

_**Ends Flashback**_

"So he ended up burning Stoffel's cape again?" Yuuri asked pretty amused, Murata gave him a mischievous smile before replying.

"It was a small fireball but a lot of materials are flammable so fire wielders such as Lord von Bielefeld and Lord von Spitzberg are careful of their powers not touching their own clothes when using them." He explained not sounding that amused until his next statement "But yes he did and it was a complete accident; Lord Weller was too focused on his brother to notice the regent walking his way and Lord von Bielefeld couldn't react fast enough."

"Didn't they get in more trouble because of that?" The Sage shrugged lightly.

"Not as much as you'd imagine since it was an accident during training. The guards that had been watching the whole thing testified in favor of the princes and, since they did get an instructor for the bratty prince before dinner –even if a temporary one- Lord von Spitzberg had nothing against the royal family."

"Good, he deserved that someone showed Stoffel he isn't always right." Yuuri said folding his arms over his chest satisfied "How long did Gwendal last as Wolfram's instructor?"

"They found an official one three weeks afterwards." Ken answered still smiling that smile that tended to annoy the monarch to no end "But that instructor and the ones afterwards had the same fate as their predecessors excluding Lord von Voltaire of course who would try to find time to train with his brother whenever he could to see how much he had improved. When he left for his soldier training he would try to teach his brother new tricks during school breaks and Lord von Bielefeld was always happy to spend time with his Big Brother. This is how it went until the war of over twenty years ago."

"… Really, who told you this story?" The 27th Maou asked again, he was completely sure it wasn't anyone from the royal family or a soldier, let alone Raven or Stoffel. His friend's smile turned into a smirk.

"Does it really matter?" Yuuri was about to lose his patience, why couldn't he just get a concrete answer out of the strategist?

"Of course it-!"

"Yuuri!" Both double-black turned back to the training ground in time to see a huge fireball be blocked by another one right in front of them. They could feel the heat of the attacks on their faces which was pleasant but horribly scary as well.

"Yuuri! Your Highness!" Are you all right?" Wolfram called running closer to the hallway and looking up at the teenagers he had just saved from being burned alive by one of his trainees. The King and the Daikenja looked down at him with a grateful smile in their faces.

"Thanks Wolfram, we're fine!" Yuuri answered. Murata then smirked once again feeling like messing with his friends' heads.

"Lord von Bielefeld that was amazing!" He then cupped his hands around his mouth to make his voice sound louder "Perhaps I should thank you the same way nobles tended to repay someone for saving their lives two thousand years ago."

"Geika!" Wolfram's voice sounded angry and embarrassed, emotions that his deep red face was showing too. The trainees were trying to hide their amused expressions by looking down and Yuuri just looked confused as his terrestrial friend turned away from him and Wolfram and continued down the hall "Yuuri, aren't you going to say anything?"

"Um..." The half-breed looked up trying to recall if Günter had told him anything about that. If memory served right, back then saving someone else's life was like preserving their body so the way to repay it was sharing themselves fully to… "Murata!"

* * *

><p>TBC~<p> 


	6. Picture Perfect

**Fanfiction title: **The little moments.

**Fanfiction summary: **One-shot series in which Yuuri gets to hear from people in the castle stories about the former Maou's three sons and the moments they remember the most from their early years.

**Chapter title: **Picture Perfect.

**Featured brothers: **Conrad and Wolfram.

**Story teller: **Dorcas.

**Chapter number: **6/11

**Authoress: **BlackArcticFox

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Kyou Kara Maou! Or any of the characters in this story.

**…..**

**Chapter 6: **_Picture Perfect_

"Ah man this is so boring!" Yuuri complained to no-one while sitting on the steps that led to Blood Pledge Castle's garden "What's the point of getting a day off if there isn't anyone to spend it with?"

Yuuri and Murata had finally finished the lessons on the greetings for the lands coming over for Greta's birthday and he was free to do as he pleased for the rest of the day; the paperwork could wait until Gwendal felt well enough after his last encounter with Anissina for him to force the Maou to sign whatever was needed but, considering everything, said Maou might as well head to his office and do it just for the sake of doing something or he could look for Günter to start with the guests' names even if the wind-wielder was supposed to help with the decoration… Yes, Yuuri was that desperate.

"Why did Wolfram and Conrad pick today of all days to check the borders? And Murata already went back to Shinou's temple." The young King said remembering the Sage had left for the temple with the two brothers after lunch.

Ever since the day the bespectacled boy made that "Thank you the way they did two thousand years ago" comment he had openly flirted with Wolfram at every moment he could and in front of absolutely everyone and Yuuri could bet his Kingdom it was to annoy him. But, of course, that had played against the Daikenja as well since Conrad and Gwendal had started to act protective of the blond soldier around Murata so, when said double-black had asked if Wolfram could take him to the temple on his horse, Conrad answered he would take care of the Sage himself while wearing his usual smile, however, a dangerous aura was visibly surrounding him and Gwendal was not any better; Murata showed his wisdom accepting Conrad's offering right away without daring to try anything else on the green-eyed bishounen.

And, by the way, Yuuri still had no idea who had told Murata the story of how Gwendal had helped Wolfram train his Maryoku but, according to his Godfather, it was a true story.

"Heika!" The king jumped at the call, coming out of his thoughts, to find Dorcas walking in front of him with about ten lances over his shoulder "Good afternoon."

"Good afternoon, Dorcas." Yuuri replied trying not to let his surprise show "Working hard?"

"As always." The soldier answered smiling before noticing his Monarch was alone and doing really nothing "Why are you here by yourself?"

"Wolfram and Conrad are on patrol and Greta is with Anissina-san and Celli-sama talking to the seamstress about the final details for their dresses." And with the ex-queen there it was likely the young Shibuya wouldn't see his daughter until dinner.

"And his Excellency Günter or his Excellency Gwendal?"

"Gwendal is resting after his encounter with I-don't-remember-its-name-kun and Günter gave me the day off and he's now with the decoration."

"And now you find yourself bored." Dorcas guessed earning a nod "Well how about you do something by yourself?"

"Like what?" The teenager was unbelieving of the proposition "I don't want to read, I can't take Ao out because Gisela gave him that medicine to prevent parasites and I can't knit."

"How about painting then?" The bald demon proposed finally "His Excellency Wolfram seems to have fun with it, I bet he wouldn't mind if his Majesty borrowed a canvas and some paint to entertain himself."

"I bet he would mind." Yuuri retorted with a sigh "No matter how bad his paintings are his art stuff is precious to him."

"Well, the Bielefeld family is known for their artistic talent. His Excellency's paintings are very much appreciated by a lot of people for their relatively unique style and for the family name." Dorcas explained taking a seat next to his ruler leaving the lances aside "And, who knows, maybe Heika will end up loving to paint as well."

"Appreciated?" The younger male asked still unsure "So Wolfram comes from a family of artists then?"

"Correct." The soldier nodded once "Usually it's the parents who get their children interested in arts, however his Excellency Wolfram was an exception due to various circumstances; he first discovered painting thanks to his Excellency Conrart."

"Conrad got him into painting?" The surprise in the King's voice was evident "But I have never seen him near a canvas before."

"Well he doesn't actually paint but Lord von Bielefeld did leave some of his painting materials behind and his Excellency Conrart only gave them to his brother." Dorcas then chuckled lightly "Actually this scenario reminds me of that time."

"How so?" Yuuri cocked his head to the side questioningly, interested in the story already and glad he could kill boredom for a bit. It was always interesting to hear about the past.

"Being the youngest person in the castle wasn't always fun for his Excellency Wolfram; he was often left alone to do as he pleased but it's hard for a demon of thirty-six years old to find something entertaining to do by himself. Lady Elizabeth wasn't allowed to come often, his Excellency Gwendal had to arrange as much as he could in his lands before leaving for the Shin Makoku Military Academy and his Excellency Conrart had classes to attend to here in the castle and also traveled with Lord Weller." Dorcas said as a kind of introduction not wanting his King to be lost in time "I was just a bit younger than his Excellency Günter is now and that day I found myself trying to find a way to entertain our youngest prince…"

_**Flashback**_

"_You could do another flower crown, your Majesty." Dorcas proposed to the pouting demon in front of him, the prince had been trying to find something to do for a few minutes already and his patience was wearing thin._

"_I have already done six today!" Wolfram complained stomping his foot on the floor "I want to train my Maryoku or spare with someone."_

"_I can't do that! If someone were to find me sparing with you the regent would have my head!" The soldier yelled more to himself than to the fire-wielder, grasping his blond hair in dismay since he couldn't please the smallest member of the royal family "And the Queen hasn't been able to find a new instructor for you yet since the last one quit three days ago and my Maryoku is not that powerful."_

"_Well then teach me how to ride a horse!" The green-eyed Mazoku demanded pointing his index finger at the blond soldier who was only getting more desperate by the second._

"_I can't do that either, his Majesty Gwendal has made it clear I cannot let you ride a horse unless either he or his Majesty Conrart is present." Dorcas said lowering his head, the maids were supposed to be in this situation not him; he had to take care of the horses and make the weapons inventory and check on that injured soldier… He wouldn't let women force him to drift away from his work to do theirs or any other kind of favor ever again, they were busy with the visitors the Maou had over? Well, he was a busy man too "Perhaps you would like to read something?"_

"_I just finished a book yesterday, I want to rest a bit before starting a new one." Wolfram explained with a shrug before crossing his arms over his chest like was previously standing "Bake me cookies."_

"_I can't bake for my life." The older male confessed feeling defeated praying Shinou would have mercy on him and send him some help._

"_Wolfram!" Salvation? Could it be? "Dorcas!"_

"_Little Big Brother!" Wolfram greeted the fifty-year-old brunette walking towards them "Are you done with your studies for today?"_

"_No Wolfram, I was only allowed to take a break, I have to be back in half an hour." Short-lived relief, the soldier sighed in disappointment; that same emotion was currently showing in the blonde's childish face "But I can spend my break with you, what were you distracting yourself with?"_

"_Nothing!" The questioned demon answered annoyed "I am not allowed to do anything fun and Dorcas is simply no fun at all."_

"_I am just a soldier, your Majesty!" The after-mentioned Mazoku cried defending himself, he was already sweating with nervousness "I have no idea what to do with a child."_

"_That is quite alright, Dorcas." Conrart assure resting a hand on his brother's head "I know you were trying."_

"_You Majesty, thank you for understanding." The blue-eyed demon smile gratefully at his superior just waiting for the dismissal so he could get back to his work._

"_I will find something for Wolfram to do and you can watch over him until a maid can take your place as his companion." … So much for a dismissal "I apologize for asking this but even the guards are busy and I don't want to leave him alone while Mother has visitors."_

"… _Of course your Majesty; it will be my pleasure." Dorcas said knowing he couldn't deny the Weller heir._

"_Thank you." Conrart thanked with a smile before looking down at the young blond "So, Wolfram, I get it you would like to do something new?"_

"_Or at least not boring." The brat's tone did change a lot when talking to his brothers… Gah! He wasn't allowed to call the prince that!_

"_Well, the Bielefeld family is a family of artists, have you ever thought on becoming one?" The brown-eyed boy asked kindly, the fire-wielder shook his head._

"_I will become a soldier like you and Big Brother." Dorcas could swear he saw a frown on the second son's face for a second… Maybe it was just his imagination._

"_That is good too but you can try an art first and then see if you would like to do only that or if that will be your entertainment for your spare time." Wolfram seemed content with the idea and nodded eagerly with a smile "Then which kind of art would you like to try out?"_

"_Mother always told me dancing would be perfect for me." A frown was now definitely visible on the middle prince's face and Dorcas could mildly understand why: Their beautiful Queen tended to call a lot of attention with her gracious movements and, according to the maids, the blond Maou was even more noticeable when she added movements of her own. If she taught her beautiful son that… Well they might just have the Bielefeld child married off to some noble before either his older brothers, it was already a palpable risk as it was._

"_I will have to disagree." The brunette said trying to smile calmly like he was doing before the idea was popped up "Maybe something else would be more suitable for you."_

"_Then how about trying what my father does, is he an artist too?" The frown was back and twice as noticeable, Dorcas felt suddenly very cold but the blond kid didn't seem to notice the change in the atmosphere or simply preferred to ignore it._

"_Yes." Conrart answered at last with an even tone of voice "He paints, he left some of his painting supplies here actually."_

"_Really?" Asked Wolfram excited, his emerald eyes gleaming "Do you think I can take them borrowed?"_

"_I believe they can be completely yours if you find that is what you want to do for an art." Conrart's smile returned and, suddenly, seemed way calmer, talk about bipolarity… Gah! He was being disrespectful again! "I am pretty sure all he used was left in the art room next to Mother's bedchambers since Lord von Bielefeld asked for it himself. Dorcas, do you know if anything has been moved from there?"_

"_No, your Majesty! Nothing has been taken out of the room, sir!" Dorcas answered getting into soldier's mode standing as straight as he could, his arms firmly on his sides with his palm pressed against his thighs, his eyes looking at the ceiling of the hallway as to not look the prince into the eye. Conrart chuckled lightly._

"_At easy Dorcas, I just asked a simple question." The soldier's posture immediately relaxed "Come on, let us go."_

_The three males walked towards the now unused art room, since Dorcas didn't have the keys they had to wait for the guard stationed by the closest door to call a maid so she could open the door for them before resuming to her activities. The blond soldier had hoped the woman would take his place watching over the prince but there was no such luck as she apparently was supposed to be cleaning one of the rooms their visitors were staying at. Once the door was open for them the two princes walked in first followed by the adult Mazoku who decided to leave the door ajar as to not cause suspicions; it was odd finding a soldier alone with a member of the royal family and he didn't want to take any chances._

"_Waaaah!" The youngest of the three exclaimed upon entering the room and taking a look at his surroundings, Dorcas himself was pretty impressed with what he saw: At least thirty blank canvas of different sizes were all around the room, on a corner there were around ten easels, a red couch was next to them; a couple of wooden seats rested next to a table in the center of the room; on the opposite side of the room there was a shelf with brushes, palettes and white rags, on another two there were countless tubes containing different color paints and some transparent liquid Dorcas supposed was to dissolve or clean the colors. The huge windows gave such illumination to the room now that it was a bit past midday that the room was just perfectly bright without flashing the males' eyes. All in all it was a perfect painting room in Dorcas' opinion._

"_I think you have everything to get started in here, Wolfram." Conrart said walking up to the other side of the room where he opened a door the soldier hadn't noticed before. The brunette pulled out what seemed to be a white robe and showed it to his little brother "And you can wear this so you won't get dirty."_

"_But that thing is huge!" The fire-wielder pointed out, Dorcas had to agree; even on him it would look huge, Lord von Bielefeld was a rather imposing man. The middle prince, however, only smiled passively._

"_That can be fixed rather quickly." Setting the robe down on the floor the young Weller unsheathed his sword and made three quick slashes to the white fabric, he sheathed his weapon again and picked the robe back up, now it was much shorter and looking almost suitable for the small demon "It has a chord around the neck already, we can adjust it so it won't fall off your shoulders. Of course, this is only a temporary robe; if you find this is something you want to keep doing we will get you a proper one with adjustable sleeves as well."_

"_Thank you!" Wolfram exclaimed surprising both older males in the room by finding him suddenly with his arms around his older brother's waist "Thank you very much, Little Big Brother!"_

"_It was nothing, Wolfram." Conrart assured petting his sibling's head lovingly. He then offered the "fixed" robe to its new owner who lost no time in putting it on, the blond turned around so the middle prince would tie the cord around his slender neck "There you go."_

"_Thank you!" The Bielefeld heir thanked again "What should I paint first?"_

"_I believe it would be wise to get to know the kind of colors you have available to work with first so go pick some of the bottles, a brush, a palette, a rag and solvent so you can start trying everything out." The half-breed proposed to what the addressed prince nodded. The blond rushed to the easels and took the first one he saw; he was barely able to carry it but refused the offered help. Once it was in the center of the room he went to the canvas and picked one that was half his size, he accommodated it in the easel and then got a few paint bottles which he left on the table next to the canvas. As the small Mazoku worked Dorcas couldn't help but smile at how easy the Maou's second heir had found a way to entertain the third son._

_Once everything was set Conrart quickly explained his brother how to use his tools from what he had learned watching Lord von Bielefeld work the few times the man had worked outside the room. The soldier was amazed, to say the least, at how well the prince had learned from just watching since he knew the blond Lord never talked to the brunette out of mere pride, not that the youth seemed that eager to do it either._

"_I need to leave now, Wolfram." Conrart said once he was done explaining "I will come after class to see how you are doing."_

"_Sure, I will try to have something for when you come back." The youngest prince promised with a nod. The brown-eyed half-breed smiled tenderly at him before walking to the door where his gaze turned to Dorcas._

"_I leave him under your care for now."_

"_Sir, yes sir!" The soldier replied taking his stiff pose once again. Once the fifty-year-old left he relaxed and opted for looking at the boy who was busying himself with the canvas. Dorcas was rather happy Lord von Bielefeld had taken the bearbee paint with him, since it was pretty valuable, and only left behind the paints gotten from plants and bugs, otherwise he doubted he would have stayed inside the room; he just hoped the young Bielefeld would never use bearbee paint himself._

* * *

><p><em>A couple of hours later a certain middle prince entered the art room without announcing himself which made the blue-eyed soldier jump up from his seated position on the floor next to the door to a fully erect one.<em>

"_Welcome back your Majesty!" Conrart smiled up at him, just a shadow of an apology in his expression._

"_Are the maids still busy?" Dorcas nodded pitifully "You shall be soon dismissed, do not worry."_

_Without waiting for reply the Weller heir walked up to the focused blond who didn't even turn back to acknowledge his brother. Wolfram had gotten a few spots of different colors over his robe, bangs and face and the end of the sleeves, as well as part of the small pale hands, were completely matted in a dark tone from the color blending they were forced upon when the kid had tried to clean spots of his painting with them rather than the currently black rag, all in all the kid looked cute even if he desperately needed a bath._

"_Hey Wolfram, is everything all right?" Green eyes finally moved from the canvas with a somewhat disappointed sigh._

"_I do not believe so." Was the truthful reply "I had wanted to make a portrait that looked colorful but I don't think painting is adequate for me."_

"_Here, let me take a look." The pale face of the fire-wielder turned a nice shade of red, embarrassment he tried to cover with his golden locks, and he turned a bit to let the older male see his work. When a few seconds had passed and nothing had been said Dorcas got rather curious himself but he held his curiosity back for he had no right to approach unless called. Finally the silence was broken "Is that me?"_

"… _It was supposed to be." The blonde's face was still downcast as he spoke "As a thank you for helping me with this."_

"_And what makes you believe this is not all right?" Conrart asked cocking his head to the side smiling softly "I don't think there is anything wrong with it."_

"_It doesn't look like you!" The small fireball snapped finally looking up, his voice sounded cracked "It's just a lot of paint thrown together and it looks made of shapes with straight lines! That's not the way you look like!"_

"_Wolfram, calm down." The half breed tried to soothe his baby half-brother brushing his fingers through the latter's hair "I think it looks perfect because you did what you felt; this is called having a style."_

"_It is?" The voice sounded so small even the blond soldier felt rather moved._

"_Of course." Conrart assured "Once you get better you can try other styles but, in the end, you will always go back to your roots because what comes out, not with practice, but with the simple feeling is who you are. And I personally love your unique style."_

"_You do?" When a nod was the reply the brunette found himself in a hug around his waist once again. A touched Dorcas saw the hug until it ended a few seconds later when the fire-wielder went back to the canvas "Would you like to keep it, Little Big Brother?"_

"_But of course." The oldest person in the room saw attentively as the portrait was moved from its resting place until the painting was finally turned to him as the half-breed studied it again. Taking a look at it he couldn't help but agree with the male on his thought about the final work, but it wasn't the middle prince he agreed with._

_**Ends Flashback**_

"So this 'style' appeared since he first tried to paint?" Yuuri asked making quotation marks with his hands, Dorcas nodded once answering the question "And Conrad said he loved it?"

"That is correct, you Majesty." The soldier confirmed with another nod.

"What was he thinking?" The double-black said to himself quietly before turning to the demon once again "You don't like his paintings either then, I take it."

"I, personally, don't but, as I said before, some people find them priceless." Yuuri nodded at that but his companion didn't seem to notice as he looked up at the sky for a moment with a smile "His biggest fan, however, has always been Lord Weller."

"Can't say it surprises me." Blue eyes turned questioningly to the young monarch who now wore a smile of his own "The feeling is completely mutual between them."

"Yes, that is quite right." One last shared smile between the king and his subordinate was the cue for the latter to pick the lances he had been carrying before the talk about the past back up over his right shoulder "I must leave now before the sergeant finds me here and starts yelling at me for being seated down."

"Of course Dorcas, thanks for entertaining me for a while." Yuuri thanked honestly.

"It was a good rest for me too." The bald man said "I hope you find something to entertain yourself with."

"So do I."

"Dorcas!" Both men jumped startled upon hearing an angry female voice apparently from nowhere since they could not see the source "Stop lagging and bring those lances to the storage room!"

"Right away sergeant!" The full-blooded demon exclaimed before scrambling away with the lances bouncing on his shoulder. The teenager saw his friend disappear from sight rather amused with the small show. Once the grey-clad man was completely gone Yuuri sighed to himself again.

"… This is so boring!"

* * *

><p>TBC~<p> 


	7. Stuck Together

**Fanfiction title:**The little moments.

**Fanfiction summary:**One-shot series in which Yuuri gets to hear from people in the castle stories about the former Maou's three sons and the moments they remember the most from their early years.

**Chapter title:**Stuck together.

**Featured brothers:**Gwendal,Conrad and Wolfram.

**Story teller:**Yozak.

**Chapter number:**7/11

**Authoress:**BlackArticFox

**Disclaimer:**I do not own Kyou Kara Maou! Or any of the characters in this story.

**…..**

**Chapter 7:**_Stuck together_

"Ok so let me get this straight…" Yuuri said scratching his head with his right hand "You got into an argument with the seamstress this morning?"

"Yes, young master; that is correct." Yuuri then raised his eyebrow questioningly.

"And it was because… She said you couldn't wear light blue since it was a formal ball and you were to use either brown or green to look acceptable?"

"Yes, that is also correct, your majesty."

"… Why did you want to wear light blue in the first place?"

"Because it brings out my eyes!" Yozak exclaimed pointing at his sky blue eyes with his finger "She was against me wearing a dress, I understand that; but why wouldn't she let me use the color I wanted to wear?"

"What did she tell you about it?" The redhead sighed and crossed his arms over his chest.

"She told me that, since I was under his Excellency's command, I had to wear the uniform his personal soldiers wear or wear something to the likes of the captain since we are the only survivors of the Ruttenberg battle even though she leaned towards the former option better." The spy explained with a roll of his eyes "But green makes me look fat and if I'm wearing anything brown I won't look much different from what I always look like; I really wanted a change for the Princess' birthday party, you know?"

"Well but the seamstress is the best one in Shin Makoku, if what I was told is true, so she should know what she's talking about." Yuuri said not sure where this was going "You do have your own uniform as Gwendal's subordinate anyway, so why not wearing it just this once?"

"And I repeat, your Majesty, green makes me look fat!" Yozak said stomping his foot on the floor, Yuuri had to wonder when the bulky man had started acting like a brat… then again, this was clothing they were talking about.

"And what do you want me to do about it?" The smile that suddenly appeared on his fellow half-breed's face had Yuuri wondering if he had made a mistake by asking that or if the mistake had been done when the taller male had asked for a word with him and he acceded.

"It is pretty simple, young Master." The questioned man leaned in towards the young monarch before continuing "Help me convince the seamstress to wear any color other than brown and green even if it isn't light blue."

"Why me?" Yuuri asked leaning back "It's your problem; I've had enough with my own fitting already."

"Please your Majesty, when do I ever ask you to do anything for me?"

"Yeah I know but still." The king didn't feel like getting into an argument with the seamstress over anything really, he barely had free time and he didn't want to spend this one trying to convince the woman to change her mind over Yozak's clothing, it was not his place to say anything about it and he didn't want to as is "It's not something I have control over; she's the one in charge of everyone's suits not me."

"You're the king, you have control over everything in this country." The redhead retorted smugly "Make it an order and she can't say no."

"That would be abusing my power and I don't do that." Yuuri said crossing his arms over his chest with a soft 'hmpf' and turning away from Yozak who sighed, knowing the younger male was right: That was not the kind of things the 27th Maou did "I'm sorry but you'll have to solve this on your own."

"Aw, come on help me out." Yozak said to his ruler who started to walk away from him, possibly going to look for someone to spend his free time with. The strong spy suddenly got an idea, one that, he was sure, wouldn't fail "Hey, how about I give the young master something in exchange of this favor?"

"Eh?" Yuuri stopped dead on his tracks, not turning around to face his big friend trying not to let show he actually was eager to hear the proposition "What do you have in mind?"

"I know his Majesty has been getting into the history of the former royal family's life, specifically, the early years of the Captain and his brothers." Trained blue eyes sparkled upon noticing the double-black's shoulders tense lightly after hearing that, he knew he had caught the attention of the curious teenager "You've heard a few stories already as far as I know, but I can give you the best one yet if you agree to convince the seamstress to give my suit a nice color."

"What would make your story the best one yet?" The monarch challenged, he wanted to make sure he was not making a deal for nothing, he heard a deep chuckle from behind him telling him Yozak was sure of himself.

"Well you have heard about some of their cutest moments and you've seen them together but tell me, in any of those stories, did the three of them ever hug?" Yozak already knew the answer but that didn't make the feeling of accomplishment that came after the shorter male's arms fell limply to his sides any less enjoyable, if anything, he felt even better at the reaction.

"The three of them?" Yuuri slowly turned around, shock showing on his face clear as the sun in the sky "As in all three of them in one same hug?"

"Precisely." The redhead nodded, now it was his arms folded in front of his chest once again, proud like never before "I happened to be in that special moment, which was quite fortunate since I didn't get to visit Blood Pledge Castle often, once every six months if I was lucky."

"How do I know you are not just making this up?" Yuuri asked rising an eyebrow, suspicious of the redhead "What if you just make up this story to make me talk to the seamstress and get your way with your suit?"

"It hurts me that you would doubt me, Young Master." The double-black just gave Yozak an 'Are you kidding me?' look, to which Yozak just chuckled again "All right, fine. After I finish telling you the story we can go ask his Excellency Gwendal or the Captain, both should be off duty by the time I finish my tale, and they will tell you whether I'm lying or not. I would say we ask Wolfram-Kakka but he was only twenty two back then so he might not remember."

"Sounds fair enough." Yuuri conceded with a nod, walking back towards his bodyguard "You tell me that real story and I convince the seamstress to let you wear a 'nice' color in Greta's birthday party."

"You've got yourself a deal, your Majesty!" Yozak exclaimed happily, knowing he would win against that sour woman who wouldn't let him chose his own attire style "Well, like I said, before I joined the Captain in the war and became his Excellency Gwendal's right hand, I wasn't allowed to visit often due to the problems Mazoku had with humans and half-breeds. Still, Dan Hiri brought me every now and then to visit his son, one of those times I happened to be walking with the Captain and Wolfram-Kakka around the Castle…"

_**Flashback**_

"_I am glad you got to come Yozak, I haven't seen you in quite some time now." Conrart said happily walking alongside Yozak towards the garden while holding a couple of small swords in his left hand, Wolfram a few steps ahead of them; the blond wasn't told about Yozak's human blood, just like he hadn't been told about his brother's yet since he was still too young to try to assimilate the idea so, to him, the redhead was just a friend of his Little Big Brother's who lived far away "Honestly I was starting to miss you."_

"_So was I, there isn't anyone my age in the village and I sometimes get bored." Yozak answered smiling before looking around nervously "You sure the Regent will not see me here?"_

"_He will stay at his castle for the rest of the week, you are safe no need to worry." Conrart assured, no-one really could blame the blue-eyed child; even if he could mildly pass as Mazoku due to his slow aging, there was still the chance someone would find out and tell Stoffel on him "No-one will tell him either."_

"_What?" Yozak had always been surprised how, since they met, his best friend seemed able to read his mind "How can you be so sure?"_

"_Let's just say the staff likes our mother better than her brother, if she agrees with you being here playing with us then they agree as well." The brunette explained with a smile, Yozak smiled back happy to find such a good friend after living for only thirty-eight years; it was early in his life since he had the appearance of an eight-year-old human just like the middle prince, even if said male was two years younger._

"_Little Big Brother." Both half-breeds turned to look at the blond that stopped in front of them, looking up at the brunette curiously "Should I keep the secret too?"_

"_Yes Wolfram, it would be better to not tell Mother's brother about Yozak's visit." Conrart said petting his younger brother on the head with his free hand, the redhead couldn't help but smile at the small prince who looked no older than four years old had he been born human; he was cute "It will be our little secret, all right?"_

"_All right!" Wolfram nodded happily before resuming his walk towards the garden, the older two not far behind._

"_How does it feel like to be a Big Brother?" Yozak liked to ask Conrart that question every few years, each time he got a different answer. He heard the slightly shorter male sigh._

"_It can be exhausting some times, especially with such a young brother." The questioned prince admitted "But I wouldn't change the experience for the world, now I get to be in Gwendal's shoes and see what kind of problems he went through while taking care of me when I was younger."_

"_I think he must have it harder now with not one but two brothers to look after." Yozak commented thoughtfully "I mean, even if it is you who usually takes care of the youngest prince he has to look after you both from time to time, no?"_

"_I try to take care of Wolfram on my own and often as possible since Gwendal is pretty busy now, but yes, he sometimes manages to spend time with us." Conrart nodded once "I have no idea how I would be if it was me in his place though."_

"_I cannot imagine it myself either." And honestly he didn't want to imagine himself taking care of two younger siblings back at the village he lived at, it could be dangerous there sometimes._

_The trio finally made it to the garden where Conrart and Yozak wanted to have a small spar practice, the blond prince would either watch them or try to join them; the redhead suspected if the child chose to do the latter they would spend a fair amount of time showing him how to hold and control a wooden sword. He didn't really mind that as long as he got to have fun with Conrart while he was in the castle._

"_Where is your older brother by the way?" Yozak asked, he rarely got to see the earth-wielder as it was and even though the teenager was scary at times he was pretty powerful from what Conrart had told him, he had wanted to see him use his Earth powers since he first heard about them. He was also curious about Wolfram's powers but he'd have to wait a few years to see those since the blond needed to train them first._

"_I do not know, he should have finished his duties by now, unless he got extra work tonight." The brunette said, his tone gave away he also was curious about his brother's whereabouts "Perhaps he is already resting in his bedchambers, we may be able to see him at dinner."_

"_Very well then." The tallest half-breed said, he was a little disappointed but there would be more chances to see those Earth powers he supposed._

"_Let's start practicing, I want to see how much you have improved since I last saw you." Conrart gave his friend one of the swords he had been carrying and kept the other one for himself. Out of the corner of his eyes the redhead saw Wolfram taking a seat by the flowers the Maou had specially created in honor of her family._

"_You will not be disappointed!" Yozak assured getting into position, Conrart mirroring him before they started their practice with a small battle cry each._

_They practiced for a while until they found it necessary to take a break. Both were around the same skill level so it was an interesting match that ended up in a tie. It was then that the youngest prince decided to walk closer to them, a somewhat awed expression on his face; Yozak guessed he liked the spar._

"_You are both amazing!" Wolfram exclaimed happily, the half-breeds smiled back at him._

"_Thank you, Wol-"_

"_Get away from me!" Conrart's words were interrupted by a yell coming from the hallway they had walked earlier that day, three heads snapped to the source of the voice just to find a scared-looking Gwendal backing away from none other than the castle's young scientist who was holding a glass bottle full with pink liquid in her hand, it was raised towards the grey-haired male as if threatening him. It was the second time Yozak had seen the girl but it was the first time he saw her with Gwendal and was, to say the least, quite shocked at the scene in front of him._

"_Come on, Gwendal!" The blue-eyed female said walking closer to the oldest prince, every step she gave forward Gwendal gave backwards "Just let me pour a bit on your arm, I promise it won't hurt you."_

"_You always promise that and every single time I need to be checked by our healer!" Gwendal yelled, the red-haired male winced a bit at the voice level but stayed still, unlike the two princes by his side who decided to walk closer to their brother._

"_Gwendal, Anissina; what is going on?" Conrart asked curiously, Wolfram and him now just by the steps, Gwendal shot them a quick look over his shoulder before turning his attention back to the pink-haired teenager._

"_Go away you two!" He said, sounding stern but there was a ting of worry into it "Do not come any closer!"_

"_It can't possibly be that bad, Gwendal." The brunette insisted, surprised at the panic he heard from his brother, Gwendal hardly ever showed such emotion. Yozak heard the reply from the Voltaire heir who didn't turn at all this time._

"_I saw that thing dissolving the wooden table in Anissina's laboratory!" The eyes of the three youngest people there widened upon hearing that, while the rooky inventor just frowned._

"_But some also fell on the cloth resting on the table and it stayed intact, I think this won't hurt you as long as you are dressed so just let me try it on you!" Anissina said, Yozak suspected she was saying that trying to make it sound safe… It did NOT sound safe in ANY way._

"_Just get rid of that thing before you hurt someone, would you?" Gwendal sounded very exasperated but the girl before him seemed to be even more stubborn than the grey-haired prince himself._

"_Stay still!"And just like that the only female present ran towards the oldest prince making a move to spill her strange potion all over the other teenager, Gwendal turned around and leapt down the stairs. Yozak saw how, almost as in slow motion, Gwendal's expression switched from anger and fear to only fear when he noticed his younger brothers still standing at the end of the stairs before opening his arms wide trying to block the pink liquid from touching the second and third son. The strange water fell on the grey-haired demon just as he put each of his arms around both his brothers, the three males fell to the floor, the oldest one holding the other two close to him._

"_Conrart!" Yozak called running next to his friend's side, Anissina joined him almost immediately looking down at the fallen youngsters "Are you all unharmed?"_

"_What was the great idea?!" Gwendal snapped turning his head to look up at Anissina, Yozak noticed the relief on her face when her friend snapped letting her know in a way he was fine, the brunette to his left and the blond to his right also looked up at her without any kind of painful sound or expression so that was all the visitor needed to see everyone was all right, drenched, but all right "Who knows what could have happened?!"_

"_It does not look like anything bad happened, Gwendal." The young Kabelnikoff said with a small ashamed smile, a real change from her previous attitude "Actually, it doesn't seem like __**anything **__happened at all."_

"_Be grateful that is the case because otherwi-" Yozak raised an eyebrow at the sudden stop only to see the furious teenager trying to move his arms to stand but unable to do so, every time Gwendal tried to move his arms, his brothers seemed to stop him without holding onto him "What is this?"_

"_Well that is interesting." Anissina mussed interested in what seemed to be happening "Conrart, Wolfram, try to stand please."_

_Both addressed children did as they were told, as they moved Gwendal's arms remained unmoving around their shoulders. Yozak saw this with great interest since it seemed the tall noble wasn't leaving his arms there by choice, rather he didn't seem able to move them from their current position. He curiously saw then as the female next to him took a handkerchief out of her sleeve and pressed it against Gwendal's right shoulder were some liquid was visibly drenching the once perfect vest the male was wearing, she then took her hand away staring in awe as the handkerchief stayed in place hanging from Gwendal's clothes._

"_It makes clothes stick together!" The female announced proud of herself. Yozak turned back to look at the three brothers, if what the inventor had just said was true then that mean Gwendal's long sleeves were glued to the other two princes' clothes; Yozak could see the tallest Mazoku moving his hands freely and pulling his arms trying to break free but it was obvious the sleeves were not moving. Anissina hummed and started talking to herself "But I wonder what makes it dissolve wood, wood is supposed to be much stronger so-"_

"_Anissina, focus!" Yozak jumped slightly at the voice, he had been hearing what the female was saying and the sudden call startled him. He heard a giggle and turned to see his fellow half-breed smiling amused at the situation, the startled redhead frowned playfully as response while Gwendal kept talking "We need to get this off us, how do you intend to do that? We really do NOT feel like cutting our clothes open out here to free ourselves."_

"_Oh! Umm…" The questioned Mazoku brought a hand to her chin for a moment before snapping her fingers and smiling once again "I know! We could try hot water, it works for other kinds of glue so it might work with this one as well."_

"_Go get some right now." Gwendal said through clenched teeth, glaring darkly at the inventor who didn't seem half as affected as Yozak felt, even if those piercing blue eyes were not looking at him in the least._

"_Stay here, I will be right back." Anissina got back on her feet and started running back inside the castle, Yozak thought he should be of some help so he dashed behind her. Just as the red-haired female was halfway up the garden stairs she turned to look at him, he stopped right on the spot looking back at her, the full-blooded demon waved her hand at him "You better stay here making sure Gwendal doesn't decide to follow me, he can get pretty impatient and I do not wish to see him scaring his brothers while trying to walk with them still attached to him."_

"_Are you sure you will not be needing my help?" Yozak asked uncertain about the whole situation, Anissina just nodded at him before continuing her way. The Gurrier child sighed disappointed of not being able to help before turning back to the princes, he didn't want to get too close in case the oldest one decided to snap at him just to lower his stress level._

"_Are you sure you are all right, Gwendal?" He heard Conrart's voice speak up, he looked back at the stuck males not wanting to eavesdrop but not knowing what else to do either._

"_Yes, I am just fine." Gwendal assured, he didn't sound as mad as he had been just minutes ago "How about you two, did I hurt either of you when I jumped?"_

"_I feel fine." Wolfram answered, Conrart just nodded agreeing with his brother. The blue-eyed teenager gave an audible sigh, Yozak supposed it was from relief "I am sorry, Big Brother."_

"_What?" Yozak was as surprised as Gwendal sounded at the apologize, what was there to apologize for? "What are you sorry about? It was all Anissina's doing, not yours."_

"_We did not go away when you told us to, if we had, you would have been able to protect yourself instead of protecting us." The blond explained, his voice sounding a tad broken as if he was about to cry "I should have left and pulled Little Big Brother with me."_

"_What are you talking about, Wolfram?"Gwendal asked still surprised "Do not say that, Anissina would have gotten me even if you had left."_

"_Besides," Conrart was the one to speak now "If that is what we are talking about then it was my fault; I should have pulled you away when Gwendal told us to leave, when he cannot be with us I am the one responsible for your safety."_

"_Do not start with this Conrart." The tallest male said sternly "It was not your fault either, it was nobody's fault but Anissina's, is that clear?"_

"_But Wolfram is right in saying you might have had better chances of running away and avoid this situation if you had not been looking after us." Now the brunette sounded sad as well, Yozak didn't like to hear people sad, even less if they were their friends. He heard Gwendal sigh again._

"_Listen you two." The Voltaire heir started seriously, turning from one of his brothers to the other while talking "Before my own safety there is yours, I am your older brother, of both of you; your well-being will always come first to me. Whatever situation, no matter how big or small, I will protect you before defending myself. I chose to protect you even if I could get hurt and I will always do it, you might think you are a burden to me but I want you to know you will never be a burden and I will never, ever, let something happen to you if I can help it. Do you understand?"_

_The place fell silent after that, the only sound coming from the wind against the castle's flora and from a small bird chirping somewhere hidden in a tree. A few seconds went by when no-one moved, as if everyone present was waiting for someone else to make the first move. Suddenly, Wolfram jumped and rounded Gwendal's neck with his small arms; the hugged teen gasped softly as his arm moved with his youngest brother's shoulders, making it seem as if he was hugging him back._

"_Wolfram? What are you doing?" Gwendal asked bemused at the green-eyed demon, eyes wide "You will get stuck in this position until we manage to find a way to take the glue off."_

"_Thank you Big Brother." Wolfram said, likely ignoring what his brother had just said. From his spot Yozak would see the oldest prince blush a nice shade of red, he knew they must have forgotten about him for a moment so the reactions were all natural "I love you."_

"_Erm…" The usually eloquent noble was at loss of words after that, the redhead supposed he wasn't used to hear that often, let alone say it back; the whole thing had taken him by surprise, even if it was usual for someone Wolfram's age to be so open about feelings and emotions. While Gwendal stayed frozen Yozak saw as Conrart mirrored the youngest prince's earlier actions and put one of his arms around his older brother's waist while using the other to round Wolfram's small back, hugging them both at once._

"_I love you, Gwendal." The after-mentioned Mazoku's face just turned a darker shade of red upon hearing that. Knowing Conrart, Yozak could bet he had said that just to have fun with his older brother, even if he did mean those words; he just wanted to tease the Earth wielder._

_Slowly, Yozak saw Gwendal's body relax into the embrace, his face lowered closer to his brothers' heads. Looking closely the half-breed saw Gwendal's lips moving and, even though he couldn't understand what he had said, he had a pretty good idea of what the oldest prince was articulating._

_**Ends Flashback**_

"Anissina-chan came back soon enough with the hot water and a couple of maids and they all gave the princes a nice outdoors bath, it proved to loosen the glue enough for the three of them to separate and go back to their bedchambers to change clothes." Yozak said, he was wearing an amused smile on his face but he also had a twinkle of tenderness in his eyes which showed how he really felt about that moment "She hasn't been able to recreate that glue though no matter how many times she's tried and our not-look-alike brothers have never been in a similar situation since, at least that I know of."

"…" The spy looked at his King after hearing no answer from him and raised an eyebrow when he saw the weirdest expression he had ever seen on anyone's face: The double-black's eyes were open a bit wider than normal but still not exaggerating, he could see the right iris quavering slightly and the mouth was forming a shape similar to a triangle. It was like nothing Yozak had ever seen before.

"Something wrong, your Majesty?" Yuuri shook his head as if waking up from a trance, his face back to normal for a second before becoming suspicious again "Welcome back."

"You made that up, didn't you?" The redhead let out an amused sigh, closing his eyes calmly.

"It is a true story, we can go ask the Captain like I said earlier and he will tell you that I am being completely honest." Yozak insisted, Yuuri grumbled something under his breath "Come on, you cannot tell me that wasn't the best story you have heard so far."

"It is." The monarch admitted. If he was completely honest with himself the story had really surprised him since, in it, the three brothers acted so caring to each other and, even if he had heard of similar situations before with the stories other people in the castle had told him, having the three of them all together at the same time like that was by far the best mental picture he could get of them up to this point. Still he didn't want to let it show, he knew Yozak would use it to mock him later on if he expressed his enthusiasm, and the expression he was sure had been showing him after he was done with the story was enough for him to be embarrassed for a long while, he just hoped the bodyguard would save the teasing for when they were alone instead of going to tell everyone else about it "And I really liked it but I will not say anything else about it until Conrad tells me you are not lying to me."

"Fine, let's go find him, shall we?" Yozak turned around, making his way to the brunette's office where he was supposed to be checking over some papers he had to sign before returning them to Gwendal "By the way, I think I will look just great in red."

"…Can't you pick anything less bright?"

* * *

><p>TBC~<p> 


	8. Word's Ways

Fanfiction title: The little moments.

Fanfiction summary: One-shot series in which Yuuri gets to hear from people in the castle stories about the former Maou's three sons and the moments they remember the most from their early years.

Chapter title: Words' Ways

Featured brothers: Gwendal and Conrad

Story teller: Wolfram

Chapter number: 8/11

Authoress: BlackArticFox

Disclaimer: I do not own Kyou Kara Maou! Or any of the characters in this story, except Joshua and Landon.

**…..**

**Chapter 8: Words' ways**

"…Wolfram?"

"Yes?" Yuuri finished buttoning his pajama shirt and turned to look at the blond reading on his bed. Greta wasn't sleeping with them tonight, saying she wanted to spend the night before her party alone in her room; Yuuri didn't like the fact his cute little daughter was becoming independent so fast but he couldn't bring himself to deny her request either. Now, Wolfram staying in his bed; well, the young king had forgotten when he had stopped minding the blonde's presence, he supposed he had just gotten used to it at some point… Yep, it was mere habit.

"Who were those two guys that came to the castle earlier today?" Wolfram looked up from his book and regarded his fiancée with a curious gaze, however, Yuuri could see the way the older male's shoulders stiffened at the question.

"Why do you ask?" The double-black sat on the edge of the bed, facing the green-eyed soldier in order to continue their conversation.

"I'm curious." Yuuri answered truthfully, Wolfram sighed but answered anyway, closing his book and leaving it on his lap.

"They are Lord Joshua von Radford and Lord Landon von Gyllenhaal." The full-blooded demon said easily, but his voice didn't sound as nonchalant as he intended "They're captains of the army of their respective lands, they are kind of very distant nephews to the head of their families and they just came to give their annual report to Gwendal as their commander."

"How long have you guys known them?" The terrestrial asked cocking his head to the side, he needed to get some information on those two.

"Since childhood; they're a few years younger than Big Brother." Wolfram frowned at his fiancée, puzzled by the sudden interest in two men the monarch had never met before "Why are you son interested in them?"

"I want to know why you don't like them." If Yuuri was honest with himself, he was making a guess from observation and intuition, but he felt very much accomplished when emerald eyes widened in shock.

"I have no idea what you're talking about." Wolfram said in one breath re-opening his book and pretending to go back to read, it was Yuuri's turn to frown.

"Come on, Wolfram." The black-eyed teen insisted, lowering the book the after-mentioned Mazoku still held in his hands, forcing him to look back at the curious half-breed "I noticed how tense you all seemed. Even Conrad's smile didn't look relaxed like it always does, rather it looked forced. Besides, you stood in front of him and I like you do when trying to protect me, and Gwendal met them halfway through the entrance garden not letting them near us."

"You are seeing things, Yuuri." Wolfram stated, turning away from the Maou and setting his book down on the bedside table before laying down and pulling the covers over his head trying to avoid any further conversation. But, of course, his companion would have none of that.

"I am not seeing things!" Yuuri retorted pulling the covers off Wolfram who sat back up glaring at the stubborn boy who didn't back down this time, those glares were something he, too, was getting used to; even if he didn't like to see them directed at him "Gwendal didn't even let them get close to greet me, they had to do it from the distance he allowed them to and with you in front of me I didn't dare to walk closer to them either, do they have something against me?"

"… No, they accept you as Maou." The fire-wielder answered truthfully, his eyes never moving from Yuuri's dark orbs. Said king thought for a second before asking yet another question.

"… Do they have something against Conrad then?" Wolfram broke the eye-contact, shifting his gaze to the mattress instead, and Yuuri knew he was right "What happened between them?"

"Nothing you don't already know of." The blond answered, still refusing to look back at the slightly taller male "They're proud full-blooded Mazoku, they used to treat Conrart as less because of his human blood."

"They what?" Yuuri asked shocked, he suddenly felt pissed at those two men who just mere hours ago had bowed before him. Wolfram continued, feeling like he needed to say more.

"Usually none of us would make a big deal out of it, even I myself treated him badly for a considerable amount of time and he would just let it slip." The former prince said, feeling very ashamed of himself; it now openly hurt him to admit he had been a jerk to his brother sometime ago whereas a couple of years back he would have been in denial of such feelings trying to convince himself his attitude towards Conrart was not wrong "But there were limits, these two went over them for they not only insulted him but his late father as well who I never mentioned out of mere respect for his memory."

"But didn't anyone ever tell them to stop?" Yuuri was trying hard to control his temper, he had always hated when people treated others like trash because of their origins and, even though he knew it used to be pretty common in this world before he arrived, he couldn't help but feel furious about this happening to a person like his godfather.

"Well…" Wolfram finally looked back up at his ruler "There was someone…"

_**Flashback**_

"_What a bunch of idiots!" Wolfram said exasperated to himself while walking back to his room, it was tiring to be with other young nobles in the castle, even more so with those reaching maturity age; at least five of them had told him they would start courting him as soon as they became of age even if he wasn't so that they could "win him over" by the time he reached the necessary age to marry, some intended a proposal even before he reached such age. They were delusional if they expected Wolfram von Bielefeld to accept any of them as his future husband, on the other hand, having males trying to court him would scare females away so he wouldn't have to deal with them as much as he would if no male was interested in him; women tended to avoid arguments with males as much as they could if only because of the duel possibility._

_He wondered what they saw in him anyway, he was but forty-seven years old, he wasn't going to enter puberty for at least another fifteen years and those nobles were about twenty-eight years older than he was. His Big Brother had told him he shouldn't even know half of the things he knows about the courting ritual or anything beyond that but they had felt the necessity to teach him so he could defend himself in case anyone tried anything of the sort with him. It all resulted disgusting to him but he was glad he understood every other term the nobles used in their questions to him, he could then easily turn them down in the most humiliating way he could think of._

_The youngest prince sighed to himself; this kind of things didn't use to happen before. He would have liked to say it was because he was younger and he really tried to convince himself of that but, even at his age, he knew perfectly fine why so many suitors seemed to appear out of no-where over the last few years: He was usually alone now. A few years back, during parties or reunions like this one, when all three princes were left to do as they pleased (until Gwendal had to take over his father's position as head of the von Voltaire family that is), he would always be accompanied by Conrart, at least. Whenever Conrart was with him no-one would try to give him presents or escort him anywhere; they would just greet them and keep their distance respectfully but that was no longer the case._

_It had been almost twenty years since he had found out the truth about Conrart's blood. All that time he had believed his "Little Big Brother" was a full-blooded demon like himself and their oldest brother, but it had all been a lie, no-one in the entire castle or outside it had ever told him the brunette actually was different from them… so very different. Nowadays he still didn't know which hurt him the most: The fact Conrart had human blood or the fact he hadn't trusted him enough to tell him the truth before he had to hear their Mother make such declarations about humans and make the connection himself. Conrart accepting his nature at that moment only made the hit harder on him, he hadn't forgiven the half-breed, no matter which reason was the one that slashed his heart –maybe it was both of them- he had stopped acknowledging Conrart as his brother since then. He was Weller now, nothing more, nothing less; at least out loud he was._

_After that day Wolfram stopped speaking to his brother, he only did it when absolutely necessary and even then he tried to keep it as short as possible. He had also stopped spending time with him, the only moment they were alone together anymore was in their sparring sessions; the blond wouldn't quit to those because he needed to learn to use a sword the best he could before Conrart had to leave for the Military Academy –two years from then- and there was no-one else in the castle who would train him. Throughout the first few years after the revelation Conrart attempted to make conversation with the green-eyed kid but he always refused to reply, nowadays, Conrart had settled for instructions only accepting his brother's decision of not speaking to him._

_Wolfram also noticed the older male had changed his character: Where there used to be a happy kid who smiled at everyone no matter who they were there now was only a quiet and serious teenager who acknowledged others with a nod and a verbal greeting but no smile any longer unless it was Wolfram himself, Gwendal, Yozak (Another half-breed, he had come to learn) or their Mother, none of the last three were at all pleased with the change in the middle prince's attitude. The Queen had done as much as she could to convince her youngest child to go back to good terms with the brown-eyed boy but he had absolutely refused to even try to treat him better and their Mother had never forced him into doing something he didn't want to but she still kept trying every now and then to make the blond change his ways with his older brother even if just a little bit. Gwendal for his part hadn't told anything about this to Wolfram and he was thankful for that but, at the same time, the Voltaire heir hadn't changed at all the way he treated Conrart and Wolfram couldn't help but be upset with him over that, it reminded the young Bielefeld that his oldest brother had known the truth about the brunette from the start because he was born first and he had never treated Conrart in any way similar to the way he always treated Dan Hiri, not even after Wolfram had distanced himself from Conrart._

_Wolfram sighed feeling overwhelmed by his own thoughts, he was way too young to be dealing with such big problems._

"_Well, who do we have here?" The blond prince stopped dead on his tracks and turned to the direction the voice had come from, he was by the training grounds and the comment had been made by Joshua von Radford who was, as always, accompanied by his best friend Landon von Gyllenhaal. The green-eyed brunette threw a smirk at the taller boy before turning back to the person they had spoken to "If it isn't the filthy insect that made its way into the royal family."_

"_No, that is not right." The brown-eyed blonde shook his head, his shoulder-length hair flowing with the movement. Wolfram hid behind the wall next to the stairs leading to the training grounds, for some reason, he felt like he needed to stay and listen to this "It wasn't __**this**__ insect that made its way into the royal family, it was its father, remember?"_

"_Oh, but of course, how silly of me." Wolfram peeked around the wall while trying to still remain hidden, he could see all three males perfectly. The two nobles were standing with an air of arrogance so powerful Wolfram could almost smell it while their target, Conrart, stood a few feet before them trying to maintain a stoic face but the youngest prince could easily see the way his fist were shaking by his sides. After word had gone around about Wolfram refusing to acknowledge Conrart as family anymore, the attacks towards the brunette prince had become much more insistent and Wolfram could only imagine how Conrart felt every time he was insulted, even more so after losing his father._

"_What do you two want?" The half-breed asked as emotionless as he could, possibly trying not to give his attackers the satisfaction of knowing they had hit a nerve with the mention of the late human knight; Wolfram had tried to act that way with bothersome nobles before and show control over his temper but had failed miserably every time "Are you not supposed to be in the garden with everyone else?"_

"_We thought we smelled something over here, something rotten." Joshua replied, smirk never leaving his face "Turns out we do have a good sense of smell."_

"_Yes, you'd be great hounds." Wolfram wanted to chuckle at the comment but suppressed it. It wasn't that he agreed with Weller, but he wasn't very fond of those two teenagers either, not at all._

"_What an exquisite sense of humor you have." Landon said before Joshua could reply, out of the two of them the blond was the smartest one "Must have gotten it from your father, he was quite the gentleman I must say; someone worthy to look up to, was he not?"_

"_Of course he was but that is none of your business." Conrart replied not saying anything more to the obviously sarcastic comment, his knuckles were turning white by now, fists still shaking "Just leave me alone."_

"_To this day I still wonder how he even managed to marry our Queen." Landon continued the assault, trying to set a path for Joshua to follow, no doubt "They claim it was love, but what if it was never such… Perhaps, it was an obligation."_

"_An obligation? Could it be due to…" Joshua had picked up the lead and started his contributions to the verbal attack, he turned back to the shorter brunette before finishing "An unplanned pregnancy, perhaps?"_

"_I'm leaning more towards an __**unwanted**__ conception." Wolfram's eyes widened, not because he believed what they were saying, but because such comment had so many implications none of the attackers seemed to care about. Conrart's stoic face changed to one of fury but even with that it still looked pretty unequal for a fight: Conrart looked no older than thirteen human years while his two rivals looked like seventeen-years-old humans "Who knows, it could have been all one-sided, from this thing's father's part of course."_

"_Shut up!" Conrad said loudly, not quite yelling yet, letting his hair hide his eyes from the two in front of him. Wolfram felt something inside him clench, he knew Conrart, he knew at that moment the half-breed was doing everything in his power to not cry and he was doing an even bigger effort in not using his sword against those two. Joshua and Landon snickered at those words, enjoying every reaction they got from their prey._

"_You are no fun." Joshua commented with a fake pout, he looked ridiculous doing that but perhaps that was the idea "Why should we listen to you?"_

"_Because he is your Prince." Wolfram's head snapped up to see none other than his Big Brother walking into the training grounds from the door behind Conrart, the door that connected the east wing, where the soldiers slept, directly with the grounds they had to use every day to practice their techniques. He saw as the faces of the two nobles Gwendal had addressed to morphed into frightened expressions, while Conrart's face visibly relaxed "And you are lucky he doesn't have you both beheaded by now."_

"_Y-Your Majesty, Gwendal." Landon spoke first, voice trembling "W-we were just having a l-little f-fun."_

"_Doing what?" The blue-eyed demon asked sternly standing by his half-brother, his brow furrowed like Wolfram had never seen before "Making fun of your royal family? Do you wish to be punished for such an act? I can easily call a guard and have you both imprisoned for life and that is, only, if I spare your lives after behaving that way towards your own Maou's child."_

"_Please, your Majesty, we did not mean anything with our words." Joshua spoke up now, his voice was steady but he sure seemed like he wanted to run away from the dragon Gwendal resembled to at that very moment "We were just joking around."_

"_You were not joking around." Gwendal retorted, tone so powerful everyone who heard it flinched, even Wolfram being far away cowered slightly "I know perfectly fine your thoughts on humans and half-breeds and I couldn't care less about them but don't you dare speak to my brother that way again: He is worth a thousand times more than you both put together and you better remember that next time you see him or I will make sure you never forget my words again."_

"_Yes, sir!" Joshua and Landon replied in unison, both giving a step back in fright. Gwendal still wasn't done._

"_And next time you want to criticize someone else's father I recommend you take your own parents for it." The earth-wielder narrowed his eyes before continuing "Must I remind you that the father of one of you was found having an affair with a human woman and almost got his titles removed while the father of the other one of you got almost his whole army killed in a battle against humans over an insignificant piece of land by the border of the country and was removed permanently from the Mazoku army?"_

"_I-I… We… And…" The conceited nobles stuttered trying to find something to say, but they weren't able to form a sentence for their lives. Wolfram stole a glance at Conrart, he was looking up at Gwendal with a grateful expression and his hands were now relaxed by his sides._

"_Shut up." Like trained dogs, Joshua and Landon closed their mouths and stood straight, visibly trembling now at the grey-haired demon "This better be the last time I find you bothering Conrart or I will have you both buried alive, do I make myself clear?"_

"_Ye- Ye-eh…" The questioned Mazoku were at loss of words, Wolfram found their terror absolutely thrilling for some reason and he couldn't help but smirk at it._

"_Is that clear?!" The earth shook with Gwendal's voice and his targets jumped high in the air before answering a rushed 'Yes' in unison "Now get out of my sight before I change my mind about letting you go."_

_Wolfram pressed himself flush against the wall hoping he wouldn't be seen by the fleeing teenagers. They didn't seem to notice him when they ran past him though, too terrified to even mind to look around them as they made their escape. The blond saw them run around the corner and disappear from his sight almost raising a cloud of dust after them with their speed, he chuckled at the sight; they didn't look dignified in the least bit._

"_Let me see your hands, Conrart." Gwendal's voice made Wolfram peek around the wall again to see his Big Brother looking down at the brunette, his hands extended as he waited for the shorter male to do as he said._

"_I am fine Gwendal, really." Weller assured, hiding his hands behind his back while shaking his head; Wolfram couldn't see the half-breed's hands from where he was hiding but he was curious to see them after the eldest prince had asked for them. Conrart smiled slightly at Gwendal hoping it would make the after-mentioned demon drop the topic "I am unharmed."_

_The blue-eyed prince sighed audibly before kneeling in front of Conrart and pulling his hands form behind his back, Conrart wasn't strong enough to put up much resistance yet, now Wolfram was able to see the middle prince's hands had bloody marks on it; the way he had fisted his hands earlier had made his fingernails dig into his palm drawing some blood. The youngest prince felt like running next to the other two but he held himself back deciding to remain hidden instead._

"_Maybe they didn't touch you but you are not unharmed." Gwendal said inspecting the marks, Conrart was looking down ashamed, of what exactly Wolfram couldn't tell "Do they hurt?"_

"_Just a little." Wolfram knew the brunette was trying not to make a big deal out of it because those marks did hurt, Wolfram had accidentally hurt himself the same way twice before and he knew they were painful._

"_We better get you to the healer, he can fix this in the blink of an eye." Gwendal stood up and rested a hand on his brother's shoulder trying to make him walk alongside him. Conrart however stayed put and locked his brown eyes into his brother's blue ones._

"_How did you know I was in trouble?" The head of the Voltaire family pointed at one if the windows of the building he had come out from._

"_I was discussing today's night security with some of my soldiers when I happened to look out that window, I saw you with those two and decided to pay a visit." He answered truthfully "Like I said, I know their opinion on humans and anything related to them, I am glad I came."_

"_I am glad too." Conrart said smiling, he looked sad still though "But you didn't need to defend me, this always happens and they have done the same a few times before."_

"_Doesn't mean it is right." Gwendal replied looking at his brother, his ever-present frown made his determination more obvious "Listen, you may have human blood but you are still part of the royal family; you are one of Mother's children and you have to remember you have a lot of power as prince of this country and even their lives depend on your orders. Never let others treat you badly and if you feel like giving them a taste of your sword just do it, not as if any of those brats would be able to beat you anyway."_

"_I know." Conrart said with a chuckle, smile still present "But I don't want to pick up fights, they just cause more trouble and I do not wish to cause Mother troubles."_

"_Then, until something changes, I will keep coming to help you." The taller brother said patting Conrart's shoulder once before letting out a breath "I never thought having younger brothers would be so time-consuming."_

"_I never thought having an older brother would be so smothering." A big hand playfully hit Conrart on the back of his head "Hey!"_

"_Don't be rude, we still need to get you to the medical wing." Gwendal started walking, the brunette following close behind._

"_Of course, your Majesty." Conrart's reply was the cue for Wolfram to get out of there. The youngest member of the royal family turned around ready to make his great escape when he suddenly heard the half-breed talking again, stopping him in mid-step "Gwendal?"_

"_Yes?"_

"_Thank you." Wolfram's chest felt heavy for a second as he ran from the place trying to avoid the older males from seeing him, he'd have to lock himself in his room later when the coast was clear. Maybe he could hide from the idiot guests somewhere else, perhaps near the medical wing._

_**Ends Flashback**_

"True to his words, Gwendal was always around Conrart in the castle as long as he could in case some other noble tried to pull anything off. That didn't change until the war both races had not long ago." Wolfram said with a sigh, looking at the moon through the window as the memory ended "Joshua and Landon didn't try to humiliate Conrart anymore, not like they could anyway with Gwendal always keeping them at distance from him."

"Way to go, Gwendal." Yuuri said happily, feeling more proud than ever before of his adviser; not that Gwendal had ever failed him before but this was something Yuuri specially appreciated. He had dealt with bullies, he knew them more than he'd ever want to admit and he knew the problems that came to those who were bullied so he could imagine what it must have meant to Conrad having Gwendal standing up for him like that; he'd never say it out loud but he always appreciated how Shouri would defend him against bullies when he was younger, even more so when his mother forced a dress on him.

"He always set up a good example." Wolfram said with a sad smile hugging his knees to his chest "It took me a new king to follow it though."

"It's all in the past now Wolfram." Yuuri turned to the blond, his happy demeanor not changing in the least "You just needed a harder push in that direction, it's not as if you stopped caring about him, I know you still did even after you tried to break every contact with him.

"How can you be so sure?" Wolfram asked quizzically looking at his king "It's not as if you knew us before coming to this world."

"Ah, well…" Yuuri chuckled a bit nervously, he had forgotten Wolfram had no idea he had seen their past when the Demon mirror had cast its power on him and he didn't feel like telling him now just because he had no idea how the green-eyed fireball would react "I just know, I mean, he's your brother so that would be only logical right?"

"…I suppose so." Yuuri let out a breath of relief; he would live another day. Another thought suddenly came to him.

"Hey, if Joshua and Landon hate humans and half-breeds…" The double-black started, cocking his head to the side "Does that mean I should be worried about them betraying me?"

"Not really." Wolfram shook his head, stretching his legs in front of him under the covers "They still have their honor as soldiers and they do love the country so they will respect you if only because you are the chosen Maou."

"Good to know." Yuuri nodded once also stretching his folded legs under the covers.

"Now we better get some sleep, wimp. You don't want to be sleepy tomorrow at our daughter's party, do you?" Wolfram laid down on the bed and turned his back to his fiancée who scowled at him.

"I am not a wimp!" He exclaimed, lying down on his side, back to the blond "And try not to fall off the edge of the bed this time."

"Shut up, Yuuri." Even if the half-breed wasn't able to see it, he knew his companion was blushing in embarrassment and he couldn't help but smirk to himself.

"You started it." A few seconds passed without a reply and Yuuri looked over his shoulder at the other boy "Wolfram?"

The only reply he received was light snoring and some mumbles; Wolfram had already fallen asleep. Yuuri snorted, it still surprised him how quickly the soldier gave into slumber once his head touched the pillow. The double-black returned to his original position on the bed and closed his eyes hoping he would be well-rested for the party the next day… And also hoping Yozak's brand new red suit wouldn't be too bright, Yuuri really needed to stop making deals with people in the castle.

* * *

><p>TBC~<p> 


	9. Personal Messenger

**Fanfiction title:** The little moments.

**Fanfiction summary:** One-shot series in which Yuuri gets to hear from people in the castle stories about the former Maou's three sons and the moments they remember the most from their early years.

**Chapter title:** Personal messenger.

**Featured brothers:** Gwendal and Wolfram.

**Story teller:** Conrad.

**Chapter number: **9/11

**Authoress:** BlackArticFox.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Kyou Kara Maou! Or any of the characters in this story, saving for the equines' identities.

**…..**

**Chapter 9: Personal Messenger**

"What if I forget someone's name?"

"That is what the rest of us will be by your side for, Heika."

"Don't call me that, Nazukeoya."

"Very well, Yuuri." The young king sighed and started his momentarily paused pacing once again. It was finally the day of Greta's party and Yuuri was starting to feel the pressure of all those human lands coming in hopes of following the peace path Shin Makoku had opened with them, since the treaties with countries such as Caloria and Cavalcade had turned out so beneficial for both parts more Human countries had become interested in joining the alliance "Is your hand feeling any better?"

"Eh?" The double-black asked, confused for a moment, before the gears started turning again and he remembered what had happened that morning; he stopped his pacing again and raised his right hand, wriggling his fingers a bit "I should be fine by tonight, Ryuu didn't do that much damage."

"Calling him Ryuu was one of the things that earned you that bite, you know?" Conrad said with an amused smile, Yuuri turned to glare at him, puffing out his cheeks.

"He should be honored since it means dragon." The monarch retorted annoyed "Besides, his real name is hard to pronounce."

"You learned to pronounce Morgif's name, Lyulf(1) should be easy enough." The brunette commented, his relaxed pose resting against the wall never changing.

"No, Boston(2) is easy enough." Yuuri said sitting on his bed, trying not to get wrinkles in his new suit, before letting out a breath before continuing "Boston likes me, Épine(3) likes me, even Erden likes me but Ryuu doesn't like me… Why doesn't he like me? I mean, he likes Ao."

"Well you have to remember Lyulf _is _Wolfram's horse." Conrad answered still sounding very amused with the situation "Boston, _Épine_ and Erdenstärke(4) are calmer but Lyulf, much like his owner, is rather special when it comes to people and everything in general." (5)

"But I was being nothing but nice to him this morning!" The teenager exclaimed somewhat exasperated "Why did he have to bite me?"

"You called him Ryuu, you offered him an apple and you touched his neck." The knight listed with his fingers, Yuuri was pretty sure Conrad was having a lot of fun with this conversation no matter how casual he seemed to be acting "He does not like to be called anything but his name, he does not eat apples unless they are cut up in his hay and no-one but Wolfram can touch his neck; you treated him as if you were dealing with _Épine_."

"Yeah, yeah; Wolfram told me all that already and Günter did give _Épine the apple in the end_." The young Maou wasn't feeling any better with this conversation, though it did distract him from his previous worries at least for a moment "Wolf barely lets me near his horse anyway unless I'm riding with him, but how will Ryuu ever learn to like me then? I mean, he likes you and Gwendal because you've spent a lot of time with him, right?"

"Actually, Lyulf doesn't like me." Conrad confessed with a chuckle "He stands me because I always treat him the way Wolfram tells me to."

"… Really?" A single nod was the answer to that one-word question "But then… what about Gwendal, is it the same case with him?"

"Quite the opposite." Conrad said walking to stand next to the bed, Yuuri had to look up now to look at his godfather's face "Lyulf and Gwendal spent a lot of time together since the animal was born, Lyulf's grand-father was Wolfram's first horse and Gwendal has always tried to be there to help train the newborns and take care of them until they're four years old(6); he's done the same with Boston's family line."

"Ryuu's grand-father(7)?" Yuuri wondered out loud "How long ago was it that Wolfram got his first horse?"

"He was thirty-seven when Ritter was born and forty-one when Gwendal officially gave him the horse." Conrad answered easily "Gwendal made sure Wolfram took care of Ritter since he was born so they could bond as the colt became old enough to be used as a riding horse."

"So he was like… eight or so in human years?" The double-black asked trying to do his math "Isn't that a little old to receive a first horse?(8)"

"You would think so but with Wolfram, even at that age, we feared it might be too soon." The older male confessed with a nervous expression "He was too reckless even then."

"But he's a fast learner, how hard would it be for him to learn how to ride a horse?" Conrad sighed, seemingly tired.

"He didn't have problems learning how to ride but there was a moment when even he was not feeling so sure about being good enough to have his own horse himself." Yuuri raised an eyebrow at the revelation, Wolfram doubting his abilities? That was unheard of!

"What do you mean?"

"Well, he actually had been wanting a horse for far too long because both, Gwendal and I, had our own." Conrad started, crossing his arms over his chest and looking out the window at the sky "He learned how to ride from both of us, using our horses, until we thought he was good enough to bond with his own. Finally, it was time and Ritter's(9) birth couldn't have occurred in a better moment, four years after the little white foal was born Wolfram was given the good news…"

_**Flashback**_

"_Wolfram, could you come here for a moment please?" Conrart turned his head to the side to see his blond brother walking towards the stable, where Gwendal was currently holding the reins of a white four-year-old horse._

"_What do you need, Big Brother?" Wolfram asked politely. Conrart sighed; he knew what Gwendal had called Wolfram for and he would have liked to be there next to the Voltaire Lord, but he could not._

"_I have to tell you something very important." Gwendal started and the youngest prince's interested was instantly awakened if Wolfram's body language said anything to the half-breed. Even if Wolfram wouldn't share as much time with him as he used to before the brunette confessed the truth about his blood to his baby brother, Wolfram hadn't changed much over the last three years and so he still felt he could read the fire-wielder as well as he had before that night._

"_I am listening." The oldest prince's blue eyes locked with Conrart's brown ones for a moment, to this day, the Maou's second son still thanked his older sibling deeply that he hadn't distanced himself like Wolfram had. It amazed him though, that the earth-wielder had still time to spend with Wolfram and him respectively since it was obvious Gwendal was likely having a hard time of his own: He was Lord of his lands, he was recently named Commander of the Mazoku army, he was still the Queen's first son and now he had personal problems with his younger brothers acting like strangers… Even if Conrart wasn't the one who started the last issue nor was he happy with the situation._

"_We believe it is time for you to take responsibility of your own horse." Wolfram turned to Conrart for just a second before looking back at Gwendal and smiled at him. The Weller heir knew the youngest Mazoku there wasn't sure what to say to that _"We"_ but he decided to let it pass to focus on the rest of the sentence._

"_Really? I'm finally getting my own horse?" The brunette couldn't help but smile at the blonde's expression; he seemed so happy now. Gwendal nodded, the smallest of smiles on his lips._

"_You have helped me raise Ritter over the last four years, now I will leave him in your hands as your very own companion." The young Voltaire said handing the reins to Ritter's new owner "You have to teach him to get used to you riding him before you do anything else, greet him and get on the saddle."_

"_All right." Conrart saw as the smallest member of the royal family took his place onto the pure white animal, not before petting him a couple of times, ready to start training alongside his new best friend._

_**Pause Flashback**_

"So it went like that for a couple of months, Gwendal helping Wolfram with Ritter's training, they were doing pretty well."

"So what happened to make Wolfram doubt himself?"

"Well, Mother held a party in the castle a month after Wolfram got the horse and after that we noticed him acting weird. Of course we had to find out why the hard way…"

_**Back to Flashback**_

"_Wolfram, straighten your back!"_

"_My back is fine!" Conrart sighed, he hated going out with Stoffel, even more so when their mother was not able to go with them. Since the Regent had learned of Wolfram's training with his very own horse (Because, of course, Ritter was not Stoffel's idea or plan, it was all on Gwendal, the Queen and Conrart) he had planned on the three princes going for a ride through town with him and Raven. Their mother didn't want to force them but Stoffel was much too… insistent about this so she had no other option than to ask them to do it just this once._

"_Conrart, don't fall behind!" Conrart looked up at Stoffel with a frown, oh how he hated the way the man always saw something wrong with them even if they weren't mistaken, still, he couldn't do anything against the blond noble despite his royal position._

"_I shall try to keep up the pace." He was not actually falling behind though so he didn't make Ekran(10), his current nine-year-old steed, go any faster than he currently was. The brunette was feeling tired already and they were just about to enter the city. He looked over his shoulder to see twenty or so soldiers walking behind them, then he turned to the front where he saw Stoffel, Raven and Wolfram who were riding just behind four of Gwendal's personal guards. If the brunette had turned to his left he would have seen one of Stoffel's personal guards riding next to him but instead turned to his right to have a silent conversation with his older brother who looked back at him with an annoyed glance of his own; it was obvious the ride wasn't any more enjoyable for the tall Mazoku than it was for the half-breed._

"_Wolfram, do not lower your arms!" The first and second son looked back to the front, Wolfram seemed to grow tenser by the second and that wasn't a good thing, even less considering he had been increasingly stressed over the last month._

"_I am doing just fine!" The young fireball yelled back. Conrart tried to say something but Lord von Spitzberg decided to keep on yelling at the child._

"_You are not riding correctly! I thought you were getting good at this." Stoffel turned to look at Gwendal and Conrart, apparently calling them liars about Wolfram's progress and blaming them for Wolfram's behavior at the same time "Maybe you should not be allowed to have your own horse yet, you are not prepared enough. I told your mother to wait even longer because you do not have the character or strength for this; it would be better if you gave your steed up and went back to training with the horses available in the castle, then maybe you would be able to be as good as it is expected from you."_

"_I _am _good at this!" Wolfram retorted "Just look at this!"_

_Before anyone could react Wolfram broke into a sprint, Ritter going as fast as he could –which was pretty fast considering his age- right into town. It took a second for the rest of the travelers to realize what had happened before all of them rushed their own horses after the young Bielefeld, the soldiers that had been walking after them were soon out of their sight for their running could in no way keep up with the horses. Conrart was by now the one leading the pack, he resembled a twelve-year-old human at his fifty-five years old so his small body gave him an advantage over the other males. The brunette looked all around him, trying to see if he could find his younger sibling anywhere but all he saw was people pressing themselves against the walls of various houses hoping to avoid the running equines; he didn't like to see people scared but he had a priority over them, so long as he didn't hurt anyone it would be fine._

"_Wolfram!" The brown-eyed youngster called, soon hearing the rest of the troop calling out for the blond prince as well; by the sounds of it, Gwendal was the one closest to him, it still surprised him Sivallus(11) was so fast at his nineteen years old but Gwendal did work a lot with him so maybe it was to be expected(12). Conrart's thoughts were interrupted when he saw he had reached the end of the town, he halted Ekran, his companions stopping right behind him._

"_He got into the forest." The Earth-wielder said, moving his horse to stand next to his brother's. They heard Stoffel huffing behind them, the man was very displeased by this but none of the Maou's progeny really cared about him._

"_Go find him!" Stoffel ordered to his guards as well as Gwendal's. Conrart and Gwendal too went into the forest, soon taking separate ways to cover more area, although, the brunette knew exactly where he wanted to go to the moment he entered the forest._

_After a few minutes of riding Conrart finally made it to a small part of the place that was always covered with beautiful flowers throughout spring and summer; it was a place their mother took them to every now and then, she had discovered it along with Gwendal's father back when they had just gotten married and she really loved the place so she shared it with them. It was easily one of Wolfram's favorite places in Shin Makoku so if Conrart were to find him anywhere that's where he should look. The second son got off his horse and neared the place on foot, making sure Ekran wasn't too far behind him, he didn't want to scare the emerald-eyed youth by making him think he was a soldier if he came in with Ekran's hoofs making much noise… Although… what would he do if he did find Wolfram?_

_Wolfram didn't want him as brother anymore, he had said so himself. No matter how much Conrart tried to get Wolfram to accept him once again, the blond would always avoid him as much as he could; even in their sword practices they didn't exchange words anymore, it was a student-teacher relationship at best during those and it hurt the brunette deeply to realize that. He knew it hurt Wolfram that he hid the truth about his human blood for so many years… Maybe, just maybe, it would have been better if he had been honest about it way earlier into Wolfram's life; his Mother had told him once he needed to be honest with the youngest prince but Conrart decided against that back then, thinking it would be better if Wolfram grew to love him for who he was before he found out the truth about Dan Hiri, hoping it would be enough for Wolfram to accept him despite his pride. Now he realized he should have listened to the Queen, it would have been better… most likely it would have been better._

_Conrart stopped when he heard sobbing from somewhere ahead, looking up he saw the smallest member of the royal family sitting on the ground with his knees pulled against his chest and his face hiding behind his folded arms, Ritter was standing behind him looking down at the blond as if wondering what was wrong with his owner. It broke the brunette's heart to see his sibling like that and he wanted nothing more than run to him… but… would he acknowledge his presence at all if he neared? Would Wolfram even want to go back with him if he asked him to? Would he run away once again, deeper into the forest, to get away from him? All those questions and possibilities ran around his head as he stayed behind a nearby tree. Wolfram didn't want to need him anymore, he didn't want anything to do with him at all, everything they used to do together is no more and the most protective side of him had him wondering if the blond would be fine if he wouldn't allow Conrart close to him any longer; he was there to protect him but over the last few years it had been from distance only, it worried him to not be close to him anymore in order to make sure nothing happened to his baby brother… He didn't want Wolfram to be alone._

"_Wolfram!" Conrart looked around the tree to see Gwendal running up to Wolfram, Sivallus following close behind him; apparently the middle prince wasn't the only one who thought on this location, nor was he the only one with a plan to approach the crying demon. Wolfram looked up at the sound of his name, Conrart could see Wolfram's puffy eyes even from where he was standing, tears still rolling down his face and it only made him feel worse he had doubted about going closer to his brother because of his fears._

"_Big Brother?" Wolfram said with a broken voice once the commander had gotten down on one knee in front of him, the little Mazoku tried to clean his face with his long, white sleeves "What are you doing here?"_

"_Looking for you." Gwendal said looking Wolfram up and down, Conrart knew the earth-wielder was looking for wounds but the blond appeared to be unharmed "Why did you run away like that? It was dangerous for you and Ritter, you just started your training a couple of months ago; you cannot break into a sprint like that out of no-where."_

"_I am sorry." Wolfram apologized, Conrart hated to hear him apologizing because it always made him sound smaller "I know it was irresponsible but… I am sorry."_

"_Just do not do it again." The oldest prince said, letting out a breath obviously of relief upon finding the fire-wielder "Are you well enough to get back? We don't want to worry anyone else anymore."_

"_I suppose…" Wolfram said wiping his eyes once more, just as Gwendal started to rise Wolfram spoke up again "But… perhaps I should ride with you."_

"_What?" Blue eyes searched for green ones as they refused to meet the curious gaze from the grey-haired noble, focused on the ground instead "Why would you do that?"_

"_Because I do not deserve to have my own horse." Wolfram started crying once again and Conrart had to do everything in his power not to step out from his hiding spot and tell him how wrong he was but Wolfram was being honest here and his presence might just ruin it "Mother's brother is right about me, I am still too immature for this and I am not good enough for Ritter."_

"_Wolfram…" Gwendal rested a hand on Wolfram's shoulder, it looked a little too big to be there but it really fit at the same time "You have never listened to what Stoffel says, why do you care now?"_

"… _I just thought… Everyone always says I am not fit to become a soldier… That, if I wasn't so good with fire, I would be better off learning healing or just become used to the idea of being someone's spouse." Conrart saw Gwendal frown, the earth-wielder didn't know about that… But Conrart did, after Wolfram decided to break every contact with him, the brunette had been able to hear some nobles talk about that when they visited the Maou, it seemed the younger members of those families had told Wolfram about those conversations, something Conrart had hoped wouldn't happen "I am powerful though, I thought I could aspire to be more than that but if I can't even control myself with my horse then how can I become a good soldier?"_

"_Is that why you have been so stressed lately?" Wolfram nodded, his eyes never leaving the ground, shoulders shaking with suppressed sobs "Wolfram, do you trust us?"_

"_Who?" Conrart held his breath, if Gwendal listed them out then Wolfram might say no just because of him. Fortunately for Conrart, his older brother seemed to foresee this as well and used his hand to make Wolfram look up at him instead, giving him a pointed look when their eyes finally met "…Yes."_

"_Do you think we would have given you Ritter if we didn't think you were ready?" Wolfram looked into his brother's eyes for a few more seconds before sighing._

"_No, I do not think so." The first son let go of his brother's chin, his frown easing just slightly._

"_Then you have no reason to doubt you are not good enough to have Ritter." Gwendal said, using the same tone Conrart hard heard so many times when he had let others make him feel as less for his human blood, it was firm but so very soothing at the same time "Or that you are not good enough to do everything and anything you aim for."_

"_How come no-one has faith in me then?" Wolfram's tears were still falling but he was starting to gain back some composure "Why can they not expect me to become as admirable as you or the rest of my family? I heard someone say my own father had no expectations about me, that he left me because of that."_

"_Your father was an idiot." Conrart couldn't agree more with the grey-haired demon, his hands fisted as he kept on listening to the conversation "And so is everyone else who thinks you cannot be the best soldier out there, they are blind for not seeing your full potential and it's those people who are not worth listening to. They just want to feel superior and they can only accomplish that by making others feel like less so you must not let them get to you."_

"_But what if what they say is true?" Wolfram asked, looking up at the taller prince "What if I cannot accomplish anything?"_

"_The only one who decides how far you can get is you." Gwendal rested his other hand on Wolfram's free shoulder so that he was now holding him firm in place "When my father got sick and I had to take control over the Voltaire lands no-one thought I could do it. They said I would break under the pressure of everything I had to do, that I would end up quitting my place as head of my territory and give it away to someone else, that I wouldn't be able to finish my training because I did not have the mental power I needed to handle everything. Looking at me now, do you agree with them?"_

"_No!" Wolfram answered loudly "You are Commander of our army, you have made the Voltaire territory even more powerful than it already was and you do everything you have to do and still have time to be with me and Mother and… everyone…"_

_Conrart knew his name was barely omitted and he didn't know if it made him feel better knowing Wolfram still thought about him or worse knowing that, even in a moment when he was speaking with so much honesty, he decided not to pronounce his name. Gwendal used his hold on the blonde's shoulders to get him on his feet, the tears seemed not to be falling anymore._

"_If I can do it…" The oldest prince started making Wolfram look up at him, again, Conrart could see the smallest of smiles on Gwendal's usually serious face "Then there is no reason for you to think you cannot."_

"_Do you mean it?" Gwendal gave a nod to his youngest sibling, running his hand through the blond locks once._

"_I never say anything I don't mean." Conrart's heart felt lighter than it had in a long while upon seeing Wolfram smiling at those words "We better get back, and don't listen to Stoffel anymore; you are doing great with Ritter. Just pretend to follow what he says today and you can be sure you will not have to deal with him tomorrow."_

"_Thank you, Big Brother." Conrart turned around to where Ekran was happily grazing away, he better get back to the regent and tell him Gwendal had found Wolfram and was scolding him for his behavior before they joined them again; it would prevent Stoffel from scolding Wolfram himself and there was no way Stoffel wouldn't believe him if he saw the younger fire-wielder's face when they returned. As he walked away he could swear he felt someone's gaze following him but he did not turn around to corroborate it, he was just glad knowing that, even if he couldn't be as close to Wolfram as he wanted to, the blond was most definitely not alone._

_Until such day comes that Wolfram takes the half-breed back into his life, he could be sure there was nothing to worry about as long as his older brother was there to cover for him._

_**Ends Flashback**_

"Needless to say Wolfram's drive to achieve what he sets his mind into never wavered after that day." Conrad finished with a small smile, moving his gaze from the ceiling back to his king he could see the double black smiling back at him.

"Gwendal is one cool big brother, right?" The teenager commented "Even if it is his fault Wolfram is so stubborn."

"We all are stubborn and that is our mother's legacy." The brunette said shrugging one of his shoulders "Now, Wolfram's self-confidence, _that _is technically _our_ fault, not only Gwendal's… You know we tended to spoil him but I am glad he talked to him that time, I don't know what would have happened with Wolfram if that subject had not been talked through then."

"He might have turned out slightly different." Yuuri stood up from his bed and walked towards the window, looking down at the guards and maids fixing some last-minute decoration details "But, at the same time, I'm curious about what _you'd _have told Wolfram if you had been in better terms."

"I would have told him pretty much the same." Conrad replied walking to stand next to the Maou "Different words maybe but same message."

"Then Gwendal pretty much spoke for the both of you in the end." Brown eyes widened slightly upon hearing that, when had the young monarch gained such insight? "Your message went across and I have a feeling it was no accident."

"… You might be right." Yuuri smiled once again at his godfather before the door suddenly slammed open, making both males in the room turn to it -the double-black with a jump and a yelp- only to see an annoyed blond soldier dragging a bespectacled double-black by the arm.

"You stay here and go over the greetings and guests with Yuuri until we call you both." Wolfram said letting go of Murata's arm before turning to the middle ex-prince "And you have to come with me, we need to get dressed."

"Of course, Wolfram." Conrad replied with a nod before turning back to the terrestrials "Excuse me Geika, Heika."

"It's Yuuri, Conrad!" There was no reply this time, just a bow before Conrad closed the door after him and Wolfram. Yuuri let out a breath and turned to his new companion who was fixing the left sleeve of his own new suit "Was it just me or was Wolfram mad at something?"

"It was just you." Murata's smile was far too guilty-looking for Yuuri to believe that but the Sage continued before he had a chance to comment "So what country do you want to start with?"

"… What countries are invited again?"

* * *

><p>TBC~<p>

* * *

><p><strong>1-<strong> Lyulf [Lee-uh-lf] means "Fire Wolf". Yuuri's pronunciation would be something along the lines of "Riurufu", which is why I decided to make him use the nickname Ryuu for the horse.

**2-** Boston got his name from Conrad being a fan of the Red Sox. He got this horse after coming back from Earth which is why he chose to give him that name.

**3-** Épine is "Thorn" in French, I thought the language to be fitting of someone like Günter.

**4-** Erdenstärke is "Power of Earth" in German, thought it fitting for Gwendal's horse.

**5-** Horses are more loyal than even dogs and different breeds have different tempers, however, a horse can learn attitudes from their owner if they spend a lot of time together just like any other pet so, here, each of the horses is very much like their owner.

**6-** Nowadays horses must be two years old to be in races in the hippodrome, but a horse isn't officially a horse until he's 4-5 years old –they're still foals- so I decided, since this world has way more respect to animals, the characters wouldn't start riding the horses until they're 4 years old; until then, they train the foals with the saddle alone and teach him some basic orders.

**7-** Horses are horses and horses don't live as much as demons do… not in my stories at least. If a horse is treated and taken care of they can live past their 20 years old so I did some math to calculate the family lines of the characters' horses. Also, the male characters will have male horses and that is just because I think most people in that world would be the kind of people to believe male horses are better fit for high-ranking soldiers and male nobles, leaving mares to women, low-ranking soldiers and lower nobles. Civilians can have whatever they please.

**8-** Children from families specialized in horses tend to start with their first horse around 4-5 years of age, like any other sport children are started early into it.

**9-** Ritter means "Knight" in German. He's Lyulf's grand-father. Lyulf's family line, as well as those from the other characters', look similar to the current horses present in the series.

**10-** Ekran means "Shield" in Polish. He's Boston's great-grand-father.

**11-** Sivallus means "Slash" in Finnish. He's Erden's great-grand-father.

**12-** Well-maintained horses can be ridden well into their 20's without a problem. With healers and clean environment I do believe the horses had nice lives in Shin Makoku.


	10. The Last Word

**Fanfiction title:** The little moments.

**Fanfiction summary:** One-shot series in which Yuuri gets to hear from people in the castle stories about the former Maou's three sons and the moments they remember the most from their early years.

**Chapter title:** The Last Word.

**Featured brothers:** Conrad and Wolfram.

**Story teller:** Gwendal.

**Chapter number: **10/11

**Authoress:** BlackArticFox.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Kyou Kara Maou! Or any of the characters in this story, saving for the equines' identities.

**A/N: **Ok, this is finally another note. As you can see, this is officially the last chapter, next one is an Epilogue BUT I will have another note next chapter concerning future projects I have prepared; 3 stories in total and I will explain to you then what they're about and how they'll be managed.

If you are curious about them don't miss the Epilogue, it should be up as soon as I get the chance to type it, hopefully before March so I can start with a new project by then.

With that said, hope you enjoy this chapter.

…**..**

**Chapter 10: The Last Word**

"Come on Gwendal, please?"

"I said no, your Majesty."

"Why not?" Yuuri asked, his whinny tone not changing from his last question "I want to be with Greta and Wolfram outside talking to some guests!"

"I need you to read these documents so they can be signed later today." Gwendal answered trying to be patient with his exasperating King "We managed to get more human lands to join our alliance last night and you need to, at least, be aware of what you're signing."

"I trust you completely Gwendal, I know whatever you write will be fair and good for both parts." The half-breed said honestly but trying to find a way out of that office still "You are an expert doing this and I'm still not experienced enough so I will just slow you down."

"What better way to improve than actually paying some attention to what you are signing as Maou? It's the only thing you are doing so far: Reading and signing." Gwendal didn't look up at his companion but he didn't need to do it to know the younger male was wincing at his words "At this point you should be the one writing all these documents, not me, I would be here only to give my opinion on the documents, if I were to be here at all."

"Well, I would never sign anything without you approving it first anyway." Yuuri admitted with a tired sigh "I know I need to get better but can't I get better some other time?"

"It is important that you stay focused right now." The already annoyed commander replied, he appreciated the trust the double-black had on him but that didn't mean he could just let his King get away; this was the King's responsibility to begin with and the youth had to read all the treaties before lunch since they were supposed to be signed after said meal. The Demon/Human alliance had gained a lot of members after Greta's party, the whole thing had gone way better than expected and Covenant Castle was swarming with people creating a rather loud and friendly atmosphere which was the main reason for the teenager to be so eager to leave the office as soon as possible "You can spend time with our visitors after lunch."

"It won't be as much time then!" Yuuri just wouldn't quit "I need to be there to represent the Demon Kingdom!"

"I said no, you will stay here until you finish going through the treaties." Gwendal closed his eyes and let out a tired breath "If you somehow manage to finish them before lunchtime you may leave but not before then."

"Oh come on!" The monarch exclaimed disappointed "It's my responsibility to be there!"

"… I believe you are spending too much time with Wolfram." The taller male commented, sounded just slightly amused "You are starting to sound like him."

"I am?" The half-breed asked curiously "How come?"

"You should know that already." The questioned male answered, his eyes glued to the document in front of him "You are just as insistent as he is even in situations when you shouldn't be."

"Situations in which I shouldn't be insistent?" Yuuri kept up the questions "I don't understand in which situations it's bad to be insistent."

"There are not a lot of those." Gwendal admitted "On these times of peace there are even less which is fortunate."

"What about Wolfram?" Blue eyes looked up at curious black ones "Did he ever insist on something he shouldn't have?"

"Plenty of times." Gwendal said trying to get back to his previous reading "There was one, though, in which he said exactly what you just said."

"When was that?" The full-blooded Mazoku looked back up at his ruler, seeing the interest in those big, black eyes, he put the document in his hand to the side and started speaking.

"You are aware of the war we had against humans a couple of decades ago." Gwendal started, intertwining his fingers and resting his elbows on the desk, his hands hiding his mouth. His eyes closed and Yuuri couldn't decide if it was to remember better, to look collected or to hide his eyes like he hid his mouth "As commander I had to be in the battlefield more often than not but it was fine by me since I knew that would be my responsibility from the moment I was born, however, there were a few things I did not accept…"

_**Flashback**_

"_You do not have to do this, Conrart." Brown eyes looked up at Gwendal, the second son's usually serious face wearing the smallest of smirks._

"_Actually Gwendal, I do." Conrart replied "I am part of the Mazoku army, just like you, and I have decided to fight for the land I belong to."_

"_You know this is all because Stoffel's paranoid ideas after Gegenhuber's assertions of proving the loyalty of those with mixed blood to make sure there are not traitors among them." Gwendal said frowning, the way his brother kept looking at the map on the desk without any apparent concern made him more uneasy, as if he wasn't uncomfortable enough being in the basically empty office the half-breed owned talking about this topic already "You do not have to prove anything, we know you are loyal to us."_

"_I already vowed before the Maou to fight for her and her people, I cannot back down." Gwendal rested a hand on the brunette's shoulder making him turn his head._

"_Do you have any idea of what Mother is feeling right now?" Conrart's almost emotionless gaze didn't budge at the question but Gwendal felt the muscles under his hand tense up "There are other ways you can help in this battle."_

"_I know this is hurting Mother and I know you worry," Conrart moved away from the older male and Gwendal knew what was coming "but I have to fight, this is something I must do and I can do it."_

"_I still-" A knock interrupted the Maou's first son, both brothers turned to the door as it opened, one of Gwendal's personal guards stood straight looking at his commander._

"_Your Majesty, Gwendal." The newcomer bowed before continuing "Lord von Spitzberg wishes to have a word with you in his office."_

"_I shall be there shortly." Gwendal assured, the guard bowed once again and then closed the door to give the princes privacy. The grey-haired male turned to his younger sibling "I have to go for the moment, but there are still things I want to tell you."_

"_I shall be waiting then." Conrart said. Gwendal nodded once and left the room to make his way to Stoffel's office even if he wished he could avoid that man._

_Twenty minutes later the Mazoku commander was already making his way back to the second prince's office, he had made the meeting as short as possible, mainly because he couldn't stand his Mother's brother, but also because he wasn't fond of the subject the meeting was about: Stoffel already had the list of those who would join Conrart's army of half-breeds, Arnold had blood written all over it and Gwendal feared some of that blood would be Conrart's. Gwendal was also told he was supposed to be back to the battlefield the next day doing some recognition with Adalbert on the borders of Kabelnikoff and return to the castle in seven days tops, giving him enough time to make sure all the Ruttenberg division was well-equipped for the battle, see them off and be near in case reinforcements were in order._

_He may not be able to say so out loud but he was more than a little worried for this battle and how it would end, the number of troops from the Mazoku side that were to defend Arnold was too small I comparison with Big Shimaron's troops and, as good as Conrart could be in battle, there was no guarantee it would be enough to help him survive the fight. If he was honest with himself, he had been hoping to have Conrart in the castle with Wolfram throughout this whole ordeal or at least near the castle so he wouldn't be in too much risk during this war… On the other hand, he was aware this had always been a possibility because of his position as the second prince of Shin Makoku, whether Gwendal liked it or not, he just hoped Conrart would be the only brother he had to worry about fighting in this war._

_This battle also would determine the future of the war against humans, if the Ruttenberg division failed defending Arnold, Big Shimaron would have free access to the Kingdom and the Mazoku would be forced to fight in their own land. If that happened, his Mother would be considered a disgrace as Maou; she already had been doubted because of certain decisions she had taken in the past and most people were sure this war started because of her incompetence and because of her marriage with a human, claiming it was bad omen brought to the Demon kingdom. Gwendal was sure his mother was the one person with less reason to blame for all this than anyone else involved in the case and now she was the one suffering the most._

_No-one could do anything about Stoffel's decision: Not the Maou, not Günter, not him; but he was sure that if anything, __**anything**__, happened to his brother in this battle then Gegenhuber would pay dearly. Not only that, Stoffel was already someone for whom Gwendal had absolutely no respect but if the man made one more wrong move then Gwendal would take over as regent whether the blond liked it or not._

_Gwendal's thoughts were interrupted upon noticing someone entering Conrart's office, the blur of blue caught his attention and the fact the door had been left wide open practically forced him to get close enough to listen to the conversation taking place inside._

"_Raven told me you offered to lead a division to Arnold to defend the city against humans." He supposed he had missed the greetings, not that they were important, the important part was that Wolfram was actually having a conversation with the man he refused to acknowledge as part of his family._

"_I did." Gwendal heard an intake of breath, he knew it had to be Wolfram since Conrart's words sounded just as calm as they did during their earlier conversation._

"_Why did you do it?" The blond asked slowly "Is it because you need to prove something?"_

"_I do not have anything to prove." Conrart assured, there was the sound of papers moving as he kept talking "This is something I want to do."_

"_I doubt this is something you want to do." The blond sounded skeptical, just as much as Gwendal himself was "Why do you have to do this?"_

"… _It is my responsibility." The time the brunette let pass before answering told the blue-eyed demon his half-breed sibling had tried to look for some way to deny the statement in Wolfram's question but found no reason to try to fool the 62-years-old noble "I have to fight for this land, my country, just like Gwendal is."_

"_Mother told me once she never planned for any of us to participate in a war." Wolfram replied, Gwendal remembered hearing his mother say that a few times before and it was all the more reason for Conrart's decision to be considered rash "Gwendal has no choice, he is the commander of the Mazoku army but you… You are a mere soldier; you do not even have an official rank."_

"_I do now." The middle prince said "I am captain."_

"_And that makes you proud?" A few seconds went by in which nothing was heard from within the office, Gwendal was tempted to take a look into the room but decided against it and waited for anything else to be said._

"_Why are you asking me all this?" It wasn't an answer and, yet, Gwendal knew Wolfram had understood as well as he had what it said about the question the youngest prince had asked, Conrart's tone took a playful note as if trying to lighten the mood with his own question "Why are you so interested? Are you worried about me?"_

"_If you claim this is your responsibility," Wolfram also refused to answer Conrart's questions but, much like Conrart's own avoided response, it answered the question on itself "then I am fighting as well."_

"_No, that is out of question." Conrart took the words right out of Gwendal's mouth "It is enough that two of us are doing this already, you are to stay in the castle until the war is over."_

"_You are no-one to tell me that!" Wolfram yelled, his temper rising quickly "You just took this decision on your own and I have the same right!"_

"_You have to stay here in case something happens to Gwendal or me." Conrart's voice finally showed some real emotion and, while it gave Gwendal some kind of relief to hear that, the emotion wasn't one the eldest brother wanted to hear at the moment "Mother needs you here to keep her company, you are the one we are entrusting to help her with the kingdom should anything happen to us."_

"_You cannot expect me to stay here being the only one not doing anything!" The blond yelled, Gwendal could almost see the daring stance Wolfram was presenting before Conrart who undoubtedly had a determined frown on his face meeting the Bielefeld's unsure gaze without any plans of backing down._

"_You will be doing what you have to do right here in Blood Pledge Castle, that is what is expected of you." The brunette replied sternly, Gwendal was fighting really hard to not enter the office at that very moment; he wanted to face Wolfram as well and tell him how much he agreed with the half-breed on this dispute._

"_I am one of the Maou's children, I have as much obligation to protect the country as you do!" Wolfram's yells weren't any weaker after some time into this argument already "I am going to the battlefield! It's my responsibility to be there!"_

"_Listen Wolfram, if you keep insisting on this I will take measures to keep you locked up if necessary." Conrart never yelled but Gwendal was sure that, if he did, this would be a moment in which he would raise his voice and he wouldn't blame him for it "You know I can do it and do not doubt, for even a second, that I won't."_

"_You cannot do that, Sir Weller!" That had been, by far, the loudest Wolfram had screamed throughout the whole argument but it was because the blond knew he had lost, Conrart actually did have everything to follow through with what he said because he would have both -their Mother's and Gwendal's- support in the decision; of course neither of them would allow Wolfram to fight in this war, if leaving the castle at all and that was why they had asked Julia to train Wolfram in healing Majutsu to begin with, so that he would be busy with something and it's not as if healing Majutsu was useless._

_A few seconds passed by, in which the only sound that came from within the office was the shuffling of documents, Gwendal could just see his brown-eyed brother at his desk pretending to browse through the papers in his hand to avoid looking at the youngest prince, it was hard to look at Wolfram's face when he was upset but the earth-wielder knew Conrart was decided and wasn't going to change his mind for anything; not that he would be any different with the egoistic prince if he were in the half-breed's place. Time stretched and still no-one spoke so Gwendal decided it was time for him to make an entrance._

"_I will stay." Every single one of Gwendal's muscles stopped at those words, he had been sure Wolfram had said his last word already, apparently he was wrong and very shocked upon hearing the younger male agree to something Sir Weller himself had said "I will stay in the castle."_

"_Thank you-"_

"_But…" Conrart's words were interrupted by the Bielefeld heir, but the tone was much calmer than before, as if the previous argument had never happened "Just as long as I am assured there will be no need for me to fill-in for anyone, that I am not to take a place in this kingdom that does not correspond to me."_

"_What are you talking about?" The middle prince asked, there was the sound of footsteps, from the sound of it they were Wolfram's._

"_I am Lord Wolfram von Bielefeld, member of one of the Ten Noble Families and __**third**__ son to the 26th Maou, her Majesty, Lady Cecile von Spitzberg." The blond announced, proud as always, emphasizing the word 'third' as to get his point across "That is who I am and I will not accept that changing any time soon so if I am to stay here I must be assured everything shall remain the same when this war ends, otherwise, I cannot promise anything."_

"… _Is that so?" There was no verbal answer but he heard a sigh, it was Conrart's sigh he could identify so he supposed Wolfram had nodded "You know I want to say everything will stay the same."_

"_Then do it." It was a demand, even if it had none of the loudness Wolfram usually expressed "If you want to do it then do it."_

"_It's not that simple, Wolfram."_

"_You went up to her Majesty and vowed to give your life in battle if it was needed to protect Shin Makoku." It was obvious the blond would have none of Conrart's excuses, a treat all three of them had inherited from their mother "If the fact that I'm standing here at this very moment means anything to you then promise, on your honor as soldier, that you will do whatever it takes to get back alive… There are people who will be waiting for you."_

"_I am aware of that." Conrart said, almost too softly for Gwendal to hear it but that could only mean one thing: Wolfram had won this round "I will come back, I swear to Shinou that I will come back to Blood Pledge Castle alive."_

"_Good." With that the conversation had officially ended, Gwendal decided it was time to enter. Standing tall the blue-eyed demon walked to stand below the office's doorway and knocked three times on the open door, his two blue-clad younger brothers looked up at him, the youngest one wearing a surprised expression as he spoke "Big Brother."_

"_Good afternoon Wolfram, I have to say, it is quite a surprise to see you here." The Voltaire Lord said as if he hadn't been standing by the open door just a moment ago. The blond turned around completely to face him, his shock replaced for a more stoic face._

"_I just wanted to corroborate if what Raven had told me about Sir Weller was true." Wolfram explained, skipping anything else that had been said in the last few minutes unaware that Gwendal had heard every word "I will take my leave now, I shall see you at dinner."_

"_Very well." Gwendal moved aside to let Wolfram pass by him before entering to the office, closing the door behind him "So, he heard."_

"_He did." Conrart nodded once, his attitude the same it had been when they had talked earlier that day "I appreciate you not rounding up on me."_

"_You knew about me then." The grey-haired prince wasn't surprised that the half-breed had noticed him, he practically had expected it, Conrart wouldn't be fit to be captain if he hadn't "As I was listening I realized I was not needed in here, Wolfram was handling things rather well for me."_

"_He learned to deal with this kind of conversations from you so it couldn't be otherwise." Conrart replied, picking up the forgotten papers on his desk and re-arranging them. Gwendal walked closer to his brother before speaking again._

"_I have nothing more to tell you now, as far as personal matters go, except for… Do you need any more reasons to make sure you survive through this?" For the first time in what seemed like forever Gwendal heard a soft, real chuckle coming from the middle prince and he felt warmer when said prince turned to look at him with the honest smile he had missed for the past few years._

"_Trust me when I say that I have never been more committed to something in my life." Conrart answered, __**this**__ Conrart was the one he thought was long lost to a person more like Gwendal himself; it was a path he hoped neither of his brothers would ever follow, for the first time in far too long, the hope he had lost on Conrart came back in one single moment "But I need to be prepared if I am going to fulfill that promise."_

"_That is what I am here for." Gwendal said before they started working on plans and strategies for Conrart's future battle, they also needed to get new armors and weapons and get the horses ready but Gwendal would do as much as he could that night so he could travel with Adalbert confident enough that everything would turn out just fine._

_**Ends Flashback**_

"Obviously things did not work out as planned but Conrart did make it back alive." Gwendal finally opened his eyes and moved his hands to rest his palms on the desk, showing his mouth to Yuuri again "I can't say he was in the best condition but he is fine now."

"So that's how it happened." Yuuri said, more to himself than his companion "That's why Wolfram was so worried and that's why you weren't in the Castle!"

"I wasn't in the Castle when?" The commander asked with a raised eyebrow, having no idea what his King was talking about.

"When-!" The double-black stopped in mid-sentence, remembering Gwendal had no idea of his travel to the past through the Demon Mirror and he wasn't sure he was ready to reveal it just yet "I mean… I heard once that Conrad and his division had gone to battle without the proper equipment and you hadn't been here to help… So, yeah, now I know why you weren't here."

"To this day I still cannot believe how Stoffel could do such a thing." The older male said looking to the wall opposite to him, apparently believing what Yuuri had said to which the teenager gave a sigh of relief "Things could have gone much worse."

"It's good that they didn't though." Yuuri spoke up, making Gwendal turn to him "Conrad never breaks his promises to anyone and I, specially, can't imagine him breaking a promise to Wolfram for anything in the world."

"… I suppose you are right, your Majesty." Gwendal replied looking down at his hands, something inside the Maou told him the blue-eyed demon was hiding a smile from him, small as it may be "Just like Wolfram, Conrart has one thick skull and is stubborn to the core."

"It runs in the family." Once again blue found black, Gwendal just slightly curious "It's not a bad thing but it _is _something you all have in common, Lady Celli's inheritance from what I've heard."

"You've heard correctly." The pure demon nodded once.

"Also, even if what Wolfram had been asking to do wasn't the most logical thing, his stubbornness paid off so I don't see why mine won't." And the usual frown was back on Gwendal's forehead "… I'm wrong then?"

"Thanks to your insistence you just lost valuable minutes you could have spent reading if you wanted to leave soon." The questioned man answered "I am looking forward to seeing you finish your work before lunch time now."

"… Oh, come on!"

TBC~


End file.
